[b]part 5
Abia: Baby snatched from labour room
Our correspondents, Chuks Onuoha in
Umuahia and Okey Sampson in Aba, Abia
State report that ritual killing seemed to have
become a regular occurrence in some parts of
the state to the extent that many have
become apprehensive when travelling in the
state.
Not long ago, a newly born baby was
snatched from the labour room while the
mother was battling for survival from post-
delivery bleeding.
The baby was yet to be found as at the time
of this report and the suspicion is that it
must have been used for ritual.
Few days after the tot was snatched, the
body of a woman without breasts, eyes, and
other vital organs was found in a bush path.
Before that incident, a young man, residing in
a village in Ohuhu sliced the throat of
another young man who passed a night with
him in his apartment and fled the village.
He was later caught in far away Port
Harcourt, River State, where he’d ran to for
safety. He was quoted as saying that a
highly placed son of a notable personality
within the community had commissioned him
to kill the young man and bring some parts
of his body.
Two years ago, a woman that went to her
farm in Ohuhu near Umuahia in the evening
was killed and some of her vital organs
removed by unknown persons.
A community leader and one of the oldest
men in Ohuhu, Chief Onukwube Anyanwu, told
Sunday Sun that rituals are nothing, but
sacrifices made to enhance one’s chances
and opportunities.
“Different types of people in the society
perform rituals and sacrifices to make strong
charms for protection, fame, success, riches,
etc. The highest of all the charms that can be
made by man are those that demand human
sacrifice. They are the major causes of ritual
killings. There are many people within the
society who are in a hurry to attain a
particular height. They are not ready to wait
for God’s time and for that reason, they want
to push the hand of the clock to move faster.
When the native doctors or herbalists see
such people, they give them very hard
conditions like the provision of human parts
in order to get what they want.
“Human blood, whether we like it or not, is
the costliest of all things mankind can
possess. That is the reason many people
seem to be succeeding in ritual practices. But
whether they like it or not, those who embark
on such things have ways of paying back
sooner or later.
“In Igbo land, rituals are believed to enhance
the chances of those who perform it to have
one gain or the other. People consult an
oracle and the oracle demands that the only
thing that will make them succeed is to bring
specific human parts.
“Time was when albinos and hunch-backs
were at risk, because it was believed that the
oracles demanded them to grant the desire of
those who consult them”, Anyanwu said.
Prior to the deployment of soldiers to Abia
State in 2010 by the federal government,
kidnapping was the order of the day in the
state, particularly its commercial hub, Aba.
Now that it appears that soldiers have put
kidnappers out of ‘business’, these hoodlums
have gone into another business – ritual
murder. The most vulnerable are children.
On June 11, 2012, two pupils of Oasis
Christian Academy, Amaoji in Obingwa Local
Government, Prince (6) and Kenneth (4), the
only male children of Mr. Chimezie Nwaoha,
a mortician with a private hospital in Aba set
out for school.
Ironically, the parents of the two kids who
had prepared them for school before going
for their various businesses thought they
were at school while their teachers who did
not see them in school presumed that their
parents didn’t allow them come to school.
Unknown to both sides, the children could not
make it to their school that morning because
they were abducted and killed for ritual
purposes inside a palm plantation that
overlooked their school.
Their assailants removed their vital organs
including eyes, tongues, breasts and penis
before burying the boys in a shallow grave
inside the bush. The police later arrested four
persons in connection with the incident.
Speaking with Sunday Sun, the late children’s
father, Nwaoha said he was yet to
understand why somebody would cut short
the lives and robust future of innocent
children. He said it would be difficult for the
gap created by the death of his two sons
because the boys were his future hope.
Nwaoha advised other parents to, “look for
maids to take care of your kids if you are
busy all the time,” adding that if he had a
maid what befell him couldn’t have
happened. He appealed to the Abia state
government to assist his family.
As the police were still grappling with the
case of the murdered schoolboys, another
suspected ritual murder occurred in the city.
A trailer driver, Ndubuisi (other names
withheld) who hails from Amawbia, Awka in
Anambra State, allegedly forced his wife,
Chinyere, to drink some quantity of fuel and
set her ablaze. The woman’s family alleged
ritual murder.
Speaking on the incidents in Igboland, a chief
priest, Kanu Nwaohamuo said ritual killing
was not new in that part of the country. He
said it started in the early days when able-
bodied men, especially slaves and at times
those that have offended the land were
sacrificed to appease the gods. Children were
not used for that purpose and ritual killings
were not for moneymaking. It was done to
either appease the gods of the land or as a
mark of respect for a fallen king or great man
in a community and were seldom done.
The chief priest regretted that these days,
ritual murder of even innocent children, has
become rampant in Igbo land, and mostly for
moneymaking, describing the frequency of
such cases as alarming.
He said ritual killing is crime against
humanity and urged security operatives to
double their efforts in fighting the crime.
The South South zone rated the lowest in
ritual killings. For example, in Rivers state,
Tony John and Canice Uzoukwu reported that
the rampant crimes are armed robbery,
kidnapping and cultism.
The State Police Public Relations Officer
(PPRO), Mr. Benjamin Ugwuegbulam (DSP),
also told Sunday Sun said that there had not
been any reported case of ritual killing in the
State.
Offered N1m for a virgin’s head
Abia: Baby snatched from labour room
Our correspondents, Chuks Onuoha in
Umuahia and Okey Sampson in Aba, Abia
State report that ritual killing seemed to have
become a regular occurrence in some parts of
the state to the extent that many have
become apprehensive when travelling in the
state.
Not long ago, a newly born baby was
snatched from the labour room while the
mother was battling for survival from post-
delivery bleeding.
The baby was yet to be found as at the time
of this report and the suspicion is that it
must have been used for ritual.
Few days after the tot was snatched, the
body of a woman without breasts, eyes, and
other vital organs was found in a bush path.
Before that incident, a young man, residing in
a village in Ohuhu sliced the throat of
another young man who passed a night with
him in his apartment and fled the village.
He was later caught in far away Port
Harcourt, River State, where he’d ran to for
safety. He was quoted as saying that a
highly placed son of a notable personality
within the community had commissioned him
to kill the young man and bring some parts
of his body.
Two years ago, a woman that went to her
farm in Ohuhu near Umuahia in the evening
was killed and some of her vital organs
removed by unknown persons.
A community leader and one of the oldest
men in Ohuhu, Chief Onukwube Anyanwu, told
Sunday Sun that rituals are nothing, but
sacrifices made to enhance one’s chances
and opportunities.
“Different types of people in the society
perform rituals and sacrifices to make strong
charms for protection, fame, success, riches,
etc. The highest of all the charms that can be
made by man are those that demand human
sacrifice. They are the major causes of ritual
killings. There are many people within the
society who are in a hurry to attain a
particular height. They are not ready to wait
for God’s time and for that reason, they want
to push the hand of the clock to move faster.
When the native doctors or herbalists see
such people, they give them very hard
conditions like the provision of human parts
in order to get what they want.
“Human blood, whether we like it or not, is
the costliest of all things mankind can
possess. That is the reason many people
seem to be succeeding in ritual practices. But
whether they like it or not, those who embark
on such things have ways of paying back
sooner or later.
“In Igbo land, rituals are believed to enhance
the chances of those who perform it to have
one gain or the other. People consult an
oracle and the oracle demands that the only
thing that will make them succeed is to bring
specific human parts.
“Time was when albinos and hunch-backs
were at risk, because it was believed that the
oracles demanded them to grant the desire of
those who consult them”, Anyanwu said.
Prior to the deployment of soldiers to Abia
State in 2010 by the federal government,
kidnapping was the order of the day in the
state, particularly its commercial hub, Aba.
Now that it appears that soldiers have put
kidnappers out of ‘business’, these hoodlums
have gone into another business – ritual
murder. The most vulnerable are children.
On June 11, 2012, two pupils of Oasis
Christian Academy, Amaoji in Obingwa Local
Government, Prince (6) and Kenneth (4), the
only male children of Mr. Chimezie Nwaoha,
a mortician with a private hospital in Aba set
out for school.
Ironically, the parents of the two kids who
had prepared them for school before going
for their various businesses thought they
were at school while their teachers who did
not see them in school presumed that their
parents didn’t allow them come to school.
Unknown to both sides, the children could not
make it to their school that morning because
they were abducted and killed for ritual
purposes inside a palm plantation that
overlooked their school.
Their assailants removed their vital organs
including eyes, tongues, breasts and penis
before burying the boys in a shallow grave
inside the bush. The police later arrested four
persons in connection with the incident.
Speaking with Sunday Sun, the late children’s
father, Nwaoha said he was yet to
understand why somebody would cut short
the lives and robust future of innocent
children. He said it would be difficult for the
gap created by the death of his two sons
because the boys were his future hope.
Nwaoha advised other parents to, “look for
maids to take care of your kids if you are
busy all the time,” adding that if he had a
maid what befell him couldn’t have
happened. He appealed to the Abia state
government to assist his family.
As the police were still grappling with the
case of the murdered schoolboys, another
suspected ritual murder occurred in the city.
A trailer driver, Ndubuisi (other names
withheld) who hails from Amawbia, Awka in
Anambra State, allegedly forced his wife,
Chinyere, to drink some quantity of fuel and
set her ablaze. The woman’s family alleged
ritual murder.
Speaking on the incidents in Igboland, a chief
priest, Kanu Nwaohamuo said ritual killing
was not new in that part of the country. He
said it started in the early days when able-
bodied men, especially slaves and at times
those that have offended the land were
sacrificed to appease the gods. Children were
not used for that purpose and ritual killings
were not for moneymaking. It was done to
either appease the gods of the land or as a
mark of respect for a fallen king or great man
in a community and were seldom done.
The chief priest regretted that these days,
ritual murder of even innocent children, has
become rampant in Igbo land, and mostly for
moneymaking, describing the frequency of
such cases as alarming.
He said ritual killing is crime against
humanity and urged security operatives to
double their efforts in fighting the crime.
The South South zone rated the lowest in
ritual killings. For example, in Rivers state,
Tony John and Canice Uzoukwu reported that
the rampant crimes are armed robbery,
kidnapping and cultism.
The State Police Public Relations Officer
(PPRO), Mr. Benjamin Ugwuegbulam (DSP),
also told Sunday Sun said that there had not
been any reported case of ritual killing in the
State.
.
.
.
to be continue
next is
Offered N1m for a virgin’s head[/b]
