The frequencies of kidnappings in the South East have taken an increased toll throwing citizens into danger, particularly in Ebonyi and Imo states.
Armed men routinely swoop in on families and abduct babies, young children and sometimes even adults in order to mutilate them and sell their body parts to a thriving industry of native doctors and order purveyors of the dark arts.
Saturday Sun reports
Recently, the Ishiagu community in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State erupted, following the discovery of a shrine where ritual killings allegedly took place.
It was gathered that when the nefarious activities going on in the shrine were exposed, youths of the community went wild and destroyed the shrine as well as the property of the Chief priest and two suspected agents (names withheld by us) from Ngwogwo community. Among the items recovered from the shrine is a picture of the Chief priest holding something that looks like a human hand as well as a register said to be containing the names of the people who had been killed by the evil men and those yet to be killed.
And to prevent the situation from getting out of hand, the police stormed the community and arrested some people.
When the reporter went to Ishiagu on May 7, there was apprehension in the air. Apparently gripped by fear, the villagers kept sealed lips. Even the traditional ruler, HRH Eze Lawrence O. Chukwu, Ibina 1 of Okue autonomous community, an old fellow, claimed that he had not been properly briefed on the matter.
However, the body language of the people spoke volumes. They appeared to be living in palpable fear. For instance, an indigene of the community, Mr Charles (surname withheld) who was supposed to be our contact person chickened out when the reporter arrived Ishiagu. In fact, in Ishiagu, the fear of ritualists is the beginning of wisdom. Or so it seems.
And this is coming not long after suspected ritualists invaded the community and stole nine children. Mrs Nnenna Emmanuel Okonkwo, a mother of six, whose two children were stolen in one night told the reporter: “As I was sleeping, I was woken up at 4am when I heard the sound of my door being broken. I began to shout inside my room, ‘who is that? Who is that? Who is that?’ Then some men broke down the door and pointed their light at my face. They started dragging my eight-month old son with me and I called out to my mother-in-law in the next room, telling her that some people had broken into my room to take away my baby. As I was struggling with them, they gave me dirty slaps on either side of the cheek. The impact of the slaps as my eyes were covered with blood. As they were taking my child away, my husband’s younger sister blocked them outside. So, they kicked her with their boots and she fell, hitting her waist on the ground.
“Then, they went to the other room where my mother-in-law and my daughter were sleeping and broke down the door as well. They entered the room and took away my daughter, aged three years and seven months who was sleeping with her grandmother. My mother in-law shouted that they can shoot her but leave her grand children, but they refused. They carried the two children into the vehicle they parked outside. Before our neighbours could come out, they had zoomed off. Since then, we have not set eyes on the children. My mother in-law said she could not live with what happened; that it was better for her to die. And she died two weeks later.”
In a related development, a six-man gang which specialised in the sale of human parts for ritual purposes in Nkwerre, Imo State was recently smashed by the local vigilance group. It was gathered that when members of the gang were arrested, they confessed that they had been kidnapping their victims at various locations in the state. They also volunteered that they use the vital organs of their victims for rituals even as some were harvested and sold to people who needed them to transplant failed organs.
Confessing to the crime, they explained that the prices for their ‘goods’ were not fixed. According to them, they sold the parts between N500,000 and N1million, depending on what was in demand.
The gory act assumed a life of its own when the men took members of the local vigilance group and policemen to their abattoir in a forest in Umugara village, Nkwerre where the decomposing corpses of some of their victims, mostly women and children were found.
In Ibiasoegbe in Oru West LGA of Imo State, a 66 year-old woman identified as Mrs. Josephine Okorie was gruesomely murdered in her farm recently.
Few days after Mrs. Okorie, who was a church warden at St. Paul’s Curch, Ibiasoegbe was killed, the people of Umuakaje Umuseke, Okwudor community in Njaba LGA was thrown into mourning and confusion following the killing of one of their daughters, 28 year-old Mrs. Chikodi Nzerem. Her three-month old baby boy was also stolen by the cradle snatchers who cut off her head.
A source said: “Apparently, the ritualists wanted to go away with their victim’s decapitated head but when they heard the voice of another woman, who was coming along the bush path, they escaped, abandoning both the head and the body. The woman raised the alarm and other farmers came but the evil people had escaped.”
In the same vein, Mrs Chikodi Nzerem, a widow and nursing mother of a four month-old baby boy, was murdered in her father’s house in Okwudor in Njaba LGA of Imo State. Her baby was also stolen.
Family sources alleged that the mother of three was sent to the great beyond by her boyfriend who had pestered her for marriage without success since her husband died about two years ago. “I believe she was killed because she refused to hand over the child to her boyfriend and no one knows what has become of the tot. Perhaps, it has been used for ritual,” said Chikodi’s sibling.
Indeed, investigation revealed that ritualists are on the prowl looking for people to devour. Hence the rate of ritual attacks and killings have increased considerably in recent times. It is the same story everywhere, as no part of the country is being marginalised on this score.