There seems to be a heavy tension in Ozubulu, headquarters of Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State, following the arrest of a 94 year old chief priest of Ndekwulu and five youth leaders of the community by the Police.
The chief priest, Anazo Ilomuanya, was arrested for alleged invoking a curse on some people suspected to be arrow heads in the killings of Ozubulu indigenes in the country and South Africa. Others arrested are Emeka Anaekwe, Anazo Ilomuanya, Okoli Udegbunam, Ifediora Aloysius and Igbokwe Nnanyeleze.
It was gathered that besides those arrested, no fewer than 30 names are on the Police wanted list. Trouble started when concerned youths, on the platform of Concerned Indigenous People of Ozubulu, CIPO, were said to have met and decided to seek solution to the suspected contract killings of indigenes of the community in the country and in South Africa for some years now.
However, the initiative of the youths allegedly did not go down well with people in the community, who then invited the Police to arrest the chief priest of the deity and some of the youths. According to the youths, "despite several interventions and attempt to broker peace, the ugly trend has continued and more lives are lost annually in the sustained carnage.
"We took the matter to a dreaded local deity Ndekwulu, where we briefed its 94 year old high priest, Anazo Ilomuanya, to invoke death, damnation and all other inconceivable calamities on all who have hands in the ugly trend.
"We laid the complaint before the high priest, seeking the intervention of the gods of the land to administer justice to the perpetrators of the killings and the false witnesses in the ongoing case of the suspects arrested over the last killing in the church in Ozubulu.”
The chief priest was said to have reportedly gone to work immediately, invoking curses, damnation, public disgrace, open ridicule and eventual ignoble death on those behind the savage killings of their youths.
The chief priest’s action allegedly rattled some individuals, who allegedly mobilised the Police to arrest him and the five youth leaders.
It was gathered that some of the names submitted to the shrine by the youths included those of police detectives, all those currently being detained and or standing trial over the murders both in Nigeria and in South Africa, those already jailed, the various trial judges, the legal counsel and some leaders of the community.
It was further gathered that about 30 names of the youths have been listed for crackdown by the Police, which has made the community a ghost town, as many youths have fled.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Police Public Relations Officer, Mohammed Haruna, were unsuccessful as at the time of filing this report, his phone was switched off.
Source: Vanguard
Tags
Crime