Understanding The Okija Shrine Phenomenon And The Art Of Mental Poisoning: Just Before The Rush To Judgement.

For those who have not followed the events at Okija shrine, I will try to recap very briefly the gist of what was discovered at Okija shrine. Following a tip off, a team of Police men led by the Anambra State Commissioner of Police Felix Ogbaudu visited the Okija shrine where they made some gruesome discovery. Headless bodies, human corpses, skulls, and a register of names were found at the various shrines in Okija. The Okija shrine  is a place where people with disputes in their personal transactions have gone for adjudication by the gods.

The guilty party usually died within a year and the priests at the shrine would demand the dead body and all material possessions of the victim which included millions of naira. Notable amongst the clients of this shrine were the late Chief Victor Okafor a.k.a Ezego who reportedly had a dispute with one Nzeribe a member of the House of Representatives. Ezego died in a ghastly motor accident believed to have been caused by the gods. His body was amongst those discovered by the Police and according to the Police it had a very conspicuous name tag. Apart from the dead body, the family of the deceased was ordered to turn over millions of naira owned by the deceased or the gods would visit their anger on the living which the family of the deceased complied with.

But the Police have a different version. According to the Police, only the richest of the party in the dispute is always guilty. The agents of the shrine trailed the individual and placed poison or charms on their cars while some were forced to drink some concoction after which the person died. The leader of the chief priests happens to be a certain Ndukwu who reportedly owns property in Lagos valued at millions of naira.

In response to this discovery, the Secretary General of the Igbo cultural organization, Ohaneze ,Colonel Achuzia accused the Police of trying to ridicule the Igbos and their tradition. A number of notable Igbos have distanced themselves from the views of Achuzia.

Again writing under the title ‘Okija: The Politics of Shrines’ one Theophilus Abbah in the Sunday PUNCH of August 15,claims the Okija shrine is a secret cult and goes on to cite the constitutional provisions that barred cult members from Government. The insinuation is that Governor Ngige and other government functionaries that patronized the shrine are cult members. This gross display of ignorance and irresponsible journalism is the bane of Nigerian journalism that has encouraged every thing that is bad in the Nigerian society as well as  mis-inform the people.

 Traditional religion has been painted in bad light and the purpose of this article is to examine the aspects of religion that is involved and   try to differentiate the practices under Police scrutiny and authentic traditional religion.

By

JACOB NNABUIKE EMMANUEL

africantruechild@gmail.com