•Igbos not known for beheading — Ohanaeze

•I’m very worried over the development — Imo leader

•We must find lasting solution — Opuruzo

By Chioma Gabriel

In the beginning…

Children in Igboland in the days of old were often warned to beware of head-hunters. Children who grew up in the pre and post-civil war era, even up to the 1990s were often told that head-hunters lurked in the forests and farms around the corners. Parents told their children, even the adults about head-hunters who existed and cut off human heads for ritual purposes.

An Igbo chief told a story of how his youthful brother visited a friend in a neighbouring community but didn’t come back. That was in the 1970s and up till date, the friend he went out with couldn’t explain what happened to him. 

The fact also remained that many never got to see or hear of any child whose head was decapitated. To some people, the story of head-hunters was just a myth to keep children at home in the pre and post-civil war era when it was believed the enemy forces still lurked around and there was so much hunger that many could eat other human beings.

In truth, children often disappeared and never returned. Even adults got missing and never returned. A local musician once told a story of a certain Ejiofor Okocha who went out with his friends and didn’t return. He was believed to be a victim of head-hunters.
That was before Otokoto happened in Imo. 

Otokoto killing and beheading 
On September 19th, 1996, an Owerri-based, businessman, Chief Vincent Duru who was known as Otokoto, the owner of Otokoto Hotel on Orlu Road, Owerri was fingered in the killing and decapitating of the head of an eleven-year-old boy.

The boy, Ikechukwu was hawking boiled groundnut to assist his economically disadvantaged family. He peddled his ware anywhere and everywhere in Owerri, all in a bid to raise funds to enable his mother to feed the family. 

On a fateful day, Ikechukwu was passing in front of Otokoto Hotel, when a staff of Otokoto Hotel, beckoned on him to come into the hotel premises to buy groundnuts. Events thereafter showed that the perceived innocent call turned out to be anything but innocent!

Ikechukwu was treated like a very important guest at the hotel. His supposed customer gave him a chilled Coca-Cola soft drink, which he readily gulped with relish. The boy never knew that the drink was spiked. Thereafter, he slipped into a deep sleep.

Ikechukwu was then lifted in this helpless state into one of the hotel rooms that turned out to be a slaughter slab. His head was decapitated, his abdomen ripped open, his liver harvested and the tip of his penis cropped off. Other vital organs of the boy were carefully harvested and stacked in a polythene carrier bag and the remains of the boy were buried in a shallow grave within the hotel premises. The room was thoroughly washed before the head-hunter left to deliver his “priced product”, Ikechukwu’s head, to his ally!

Those familiar with the Otokoto story would perhaps not feel strange about the current trend of killings and beheadings happening in Imo.

In the case of Otokoto, fate played a fast one on the perpetrator, making it impossible for him  to deliver the “priced product”, possibly by sheer God’s divine intervention.
The only option left for the head-hunter was to go back to Owerri with his “product” but somewhere along the line, the seemingly endless stream of blood, dropping from his carrier bag and the way he jealously guarded the bag, led to the suspicion of a commercial motorcyclist who tipped off the police and they quickly organized an emergency roadblock.

The information eventually turned out to be very credible and the police arrangement paid off. They intercepted the head-hunter who was then traveling back to Owerri, in a Peugeot 505, which was, in every respect, a luxury car in 1996.

Otokoto protests…
The story of the decapitation of Ikechukwu spread like wildfire across Imo State and beyond. The scenario was further hyped, when the electronic and print media beamed life, the image of the murderer, carrying the head of little Ikechukwu in his hands. This instantly sent residents of Owerri municipality berserk. The sight was gory and the act, reprehensible.

Without any prompting from any person or group, but irked by the damnable happening, Owerri residents and those from the adjoining communities, trooped out in their numbers, for a massive protest that was eventually branded “Otokoto Riot.”

After the head-hunter was arrested by the police, an investigation into the ugly incident commenced. It was revealed that he was a gardener in Otokoto Hotel. But what drew the ire of Owerri residents was the shocking thing that this prime suspect reportedly died of food poisoning, barely four days after he was incarcerated in a police cell. It was suspected that some elements within the Imo State Command, had been compromised, and every effort was being made to seal “notable names involved in the gruesome murder of the young boy.

Nothing was again heard about the fabled police involvement in the suspect’s death in their custody. But he allegedly made several revelations before his untimely death.

He mentioned the name of the mastermind of the brutal murder of the young groundnut hawker.

He also disclosed that they ran a syndicate, whose stock in trade was kidnapping and harvesting human organs for varying reasons.

He was equally quoted as having told the police that Otokoto and his partners in crime, had been in the gory business as far back as the 1970s.

READ ALSO: 15-year-old boy exposes hotel where suspected ESN members allegedly plan attacks on Imo communities

Guests in his hotel were not spared from being drugged or attacked in the middle of their sleep. The police were also told that the vital organs of the hotel customers, who were successfully silenced for life, were harvested.

Armed with this vital information, the police combed the nooks and crannies of the hotel premises and discovered several shallow graves. No fewer than 24 dismembered and decomposing human bodies were exhumed!

That was 24 years ago and that to a large extent answered the question the head-hunters parents always warned the children about.

Current beheadings in Imo
Today, a similar trend has enveloped Imo State and other parts of Igboland.
Before Imo became the centre stage of recent beheadings, there have been beheadings in other parts of Nigeria and indeed Igboland.

In October 2020, suspected hoodlums, numbering over 100 reportedly hacked to death an unidentified policeman deployed at Ogidi Police Station in Anambra State.

The hoodlums also beheaded the policeman, and thereafter burnt his headless body.
In May 2021, hoodlums went to Rumuji Police station in Rivers State where they killed police officers and beheaded one.

In Imo State, rampaging gunmen have taken the centre stage and have reverted to killing people, beheading them, and displaying their heads in public places.

Five people were beheaded within a space of 10 days. 

It started with the beheading of two persons in Orsu Local Government Area of the state two weeks ago.

In that attack, the attackers set ablaze the country home of the lawmaker representing the area in the state House of Assembly, Ekene Nnodimele, after beheading his gateman.

An All Progressives Congress chieftain in the area, Jonathan Ugochukwu was also beheaded at the same time.

His wife, Mrs Nkechi Ugochukwu, said that the attackers invaded their house, carried her husband out, beheaded him, and set the house ablaze.

The hoodlums also fled with her husband’s decapitated head.
In the case of the beheaded gatemen, a community source said that the attackers also left with the severed head of the gateman.

The source said, “The hoodlums met the absence of the lawmaker and in anger, they beheaded his gateman and left with his decapitated head.

“They also invaded the house of another APC chieftain here, Jonathan Ugochukwu, burnt his house, beheaded him, and left with his head. They attacked and burnt the houses of the president-general and the councilor representing our ward.”

Shortly after, in Umuaka, Njaba Local Government Area Imo State, a group of bandits bombed the Umuaka divisional police station, police quarters and beheaded two of the officers in an early morning attack.

A source from the troubled community disclosed that the hoodlums also burnt a car and its occupant along Orlu road.

Indigenes of Umuaka, in  Njaba Local Government Area, were yet to come to terms with what befell them when the people of Okporo community in Orlu council area of Imo State, got visited by a similar fate as two of their kinsmen were killed by suspected gunmen. 

The killers also cut off the heads of the victims after killing them and went away with both corpses and the heads. The heads were later seen, displayed on top of a table at the community market, Orie Okporo. 

The victims, according to reports were one Felix Okechukwu, popularly known as Akaonyewetere, a mechanic from Ududu village, and Eberechukwu Udemba; and a palm wine tapper from Amanato village both in the same community. 

The indigenes could not explain the possible reason for the attack.
A visit to the community showed that the indigenes of the community had deserted their homes after the attack for fear of the unknown. 

“They killed them in their various houses, brought their heads to Orie Okporo community, and displayed them on a table. The families retrieved the severed heads from the market this morning,” a source said. 

Shortly after, a motorist plying Owerri/Orlu road in Imo State, in his Siena vehicle was beheaded by unknown gunmen with the man’s legs and hands chopped off at Okwudor junction in Njaba Local Government Area.   

According to some community sources: “We woke up early morning and discovered along the road at Okwudor junction in Njaba Local Government that a lifeless body and his head, hands and legs have been cut off. We think they are hardened criminals looking for a way to prepare charms for themselves. 

“On Friday night we had several gunshots from different areas around the Okwudor junction. We were afraid that armed robbers had already come to attack us in our village but after about 30 minutes everywhere was calmed and we were surprised to come out and saw this dead body. We are afraid these hoodlums want to take over Njaba.”

In another development in the same Njaba, over ten vehicles have been set ablaze and two suspected Police officers were killed when unknown gunmen attacked Njaba Divisional Police station.

Also, the buildings belonging to Njaba Police station were completely razed down.
Some people who spoke said: “These men who attacked the Njaba Police station were in their convoy and they wore black attire. When they came, they, first of all, started shooting in the air and people ran away. 

“They moved into the police station and killed about two persons there and burnt the police station. They may have taken away some arms and ammunition in the police station and released those in detention.”

Although there have been claims and counter-claims, the strange thing remains that one could not say for sure who is behind the beheadings. 

While some sources and security personnel blamed the Eastern Security Network, ESN, of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB; others blamed it on two factors, those for Biafra agitations and those against it. Another group perceived the killings a political.

A source in the community said it is difficult to say for sure the people behind the renewed killings.

“I can’t say for sure the people behind these killings. Initially, we suspected ritualists. Some people have tried to link it to the issue of Biafra. We don’t just know who is responsible, and for what purpose.

“But all we pray is for peace to return. There is so much fear in the community. Nobody knows what next. We are living in fear. Many people have left the village, especially those who are into politics”, the source stated. 

Not in our character —Ohanaeze
Dismayed by the development, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo condemned the renewed violent attacks in Orlu area of Imo State and the cutting of heads of victims behind the attacks saying it is not in the character of the Igbo.

“We have been celebrating the peace and tranquility in the South East, which we prized as the most peaceful. It is most unfortunate that something else, the ugly attack is being reported. Whether it coming from known or unknown gunmen, please, let them sheat their swords and give peace a chance. We don’t need to destroy our land.

Destroying our things means inflicting more hardship on our people. This is not acceptable, it is not our culture, not our character, not our way of life. We are builders, not destroyers.

“All men of goodwill should join hands to and help to call whoever is behind these atrocities to stop. We don’t need any attacks anymore. We need to join hands and make our zone an enviable place where peace and tranquility reign”, Ohanaeze said through its spokesman, Hon. Alex Chidozie Ogbonnia.

In its reaction, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of Orluzurumee, the apex socio-political organization in Orlu, Reuben Okoro expressed deep worry over the situation.
Okoro submitted that his knees are on the ground every day making supplication to God for peace to return to the area.

“I am very worried over the killings. My knees are on the ground every day praying to God to restore sanity to Orlu. If we kill ourselves, who is going to stay back. The situation pains me”, he stated.

On how to restore peace, Okoro said: “You know it is difficult to talk now. If you talk, if ‘A’ does not misquote you, ‘B’ will do. I will suggest elders should be assembled to see what could be done about it. I am just praying to God. God has the solution to what is happening in Orlu, Imo State, and Nigeria in general”, he posited.

A former governorship aspirant who hails from Okporo Community, Leo Okolienta said he was saddened by the killings in his community.

Okolienta, based in the United States, appealed to those behind the killings to sheathe their sword for peace to return.

“I am saddened by the killings in my community. It is very worrisome how human beings are being slaughtered. I appeal to all parties to please give peace a chance. We can’t continue to lose our people.

“Government should handle this matter carefully, we just want peace to return so that people can live without fear”, he pleaded.

Currently, consultations by stakeholders of Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State have continued in a bid to find permanent solutions to the series of killings and beheading of people in their area.

The Imo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, to adopt a round-table approach in resolving the Orlu crises. 

PDP through the State Youth Leader, Greg Nwadike, said a round-table strategy has been effective in the management of the Niger Delta crisis and should be applied in the Orlu insecurity issues.   

According to Nwadike, “My stand is that the government should approach this insecurity from a round-table strategy. He should meet with those involved and know what are their problems and look into it. This is the way to go about it. It is the approach we saw even in Niger Delta areas and it has worked well. 

“It is not with the use of gun and bullet approach. We, the leaders of Orlu are not happy with the killings in our area and we want it stopped. There is no security in Orlu and the government must be seen doing the right thing to secure Orlu.”

It was learned that all manner of stakeholders has been meeting over the development. The traditional rulers were meeting and the youth groups have come together to form an alliance and protect their communities. The youths have taken over the security of the area. People entering or leaving the communities were scrutinized.

Imo State Government through the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, said: “The State Government has tightened security in the area.

You are aware that so many of the attackers were killed and many of them arrested. Surveillance has been intensified in the area. The government has been liaising with stakeholders and we have been doing that even before now.”

Will peace return?
It is a matter of time. Already, anger is slowing down between opposing camps The trend of beheadings of persons has been slowed down.

The gradual calmness according to sources was achieved because the opposing camps linked to Biafra agitations have retreated for now. 

An insider said another reason for the dousing of the tension was because of the different stakeholders’ meetings ongoing in the area regarding the crises. 

“The time has come for the different Orluzurume stakeholders’ groups to have to collaborate in achieving a unanimous decision to address the issue. The organizations that have been organizing isolated meetings included the Orluzurume Igwebuike Cultural Association led by Emeka Diwe; Orluzurume Peoples Assembly led by Chime Nzeribe; and Orluzurume Youth Assembly led Sylvester Anugwai. But it was noticed that the different meetings could be discouraging in the effort to achieve total peace in the area.”

The Spokesperson of Orlu Political Action Committee, OPAC, Collins Opuruzo suggested that the groups should come together and win the war against insecurity. 

Opuruzo said among other things, “We are calling on the stakeholders to come together and find a lasting solution to the problems. We understand that there are individuals efforts. But all we want is concerted efforts for all the socio-cultural groups to come together and understand the problems and find solutions to it. 

“We are calling on them to come together because we need a collective action so all of us must come together and proffer collective solutions. It is a collective threat and all of us must come together and achieve the peace we need.   

“It is not what a particular interest group can do it is a generic issue and it is what everybody must come together and look for a solution.”
Some other persons from the community who pleaded anonymity said: “The way we are going about it, it may not achieve its aims. Our people must come together and work as one so that there will be total peace in Orlu.

“All we need in Orlu is peace and all of us must be on one page to achieve it. Orlu has been on fire for one week and there were killings and beheadings of people. So, if you are a lover of Orlu, Imo state let us put hands together and Orlu will be better.”

Vanguard News Nigeria