While scientists are making research to advance in modern technologies to proffer solutions to myriads of problems facing mankind, some people still rely on crude unscientific methods to solve their own problems, which in the long run compound the problems instead of solving them.
In Imufu village, Enugu-Ezike, Igbo Eze North Local Government Area, Enugu State, Sunday Sun recently met a man who was forced to drink the water used to bath a corpse in order to prove his innocence over the man’s death. Currently, the victim, Mathew Ossai, has become a shadow of his boisterous self. His self-esteem has vanished while some villagers avoid him and family members like a plague.
When Sunday Sun reporter sauntered into his house at Umuonaje quarters, Imufu village, Ossai sat alone on a wooden chair laced with cow’s skin (which he later disclosed was a sign that he had killed a cow (ogbuefi) for his late father as a mark of respect during his father’s funeral). Looking forlorn and despondent, his wife, Josephine, was at the backyard collecting palm nuts in preparation for the production of palm oil.
Mathew Ossai narrated how he was accused of killing one Mr. Fidelis Attah of the same Umu-Onu Oyina extended family. He pointed out that he was a victim of high-wired persecution because he is the only male child from his mother’s womb. He also accused the present traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Remigius Attah, as the mastermind of his ordeal.
Ossai said the traditional ruler hated him with the last drop of his blood and had used his influence as a rich man to oppress him despite the fact that he was a driver in the traditional ruler’s company, and served him diligently for many years. Narrating what happened to Sunday Sun, Ossai said Attah nwa Ugwuanyi, father of the late Fidelis Attah, never supported Igwe Remigius when they accused him (Ossai) of being responsible for Fide’s death.
“Fidelis Attah was my friend and brother while alive; we quarrelled and settled issues amicably when he was alive. It was later that he developed sickness, which was diagnosed to be a liver-related problem. Their mother also died in such sickness and even recently, another of their siblings also died. When Fidelis eventually died, his elder brother, Igwe Remigius, openly accused me of being responsible for his death. I told him that he just wanted to spoil my name and reputation. I ran to their father, Attah nwa Ugwuanyi, and reported this to him. The old man exonerated me and reprimanded his children for levelling that kind of allegation against me. He told them point blank that they should remember that their mother died in the same circumstance, but they were adamant and determined to finish me. I told them I was ready to swear by the oracle that my hands are clean.
Drinking corpse waterWith tears streaming down his face, Mathew Ossai said he was practically dragged to the compound of the deceased the day the corpse was brought home. “I was in my house wearing only a short when they came and ordered me to follow them, saying that the one I killed had been brought home from the hospital. I complied to avoid being lynched, and on reaching the house I was surrounded by many people. Igwe Remigius told his boys to bath the corpse, and they collected the water used in bathing the corpse of a man that had been bed-ridden for so long before he died and said I must drink it.
They said if I didn’t die after seven native weeks (28 days) then, I had proved my innocence. (At this point, he broke down wept) “Imagine, because I had no one to stand by me and resist them. As if this wasn’t enough, another man in their midst collected a kola nut, broke the lobe and after rubbing the kola on the corpse’s chest region gave it to me to chew again. When I wanted to resist this time, they rushed at me to hit me. I collected it again and after raising my hands in the air to talk to my ancestors to bear me witness, I chewed the kola and they gave me the remaining water used to bath the corpse, which I used to wash down the kola inside my stomach.
The waiting gameOssai went back home with heavy heart to wait for the worst to happen. “When I got home, my wife urged me to seek medical attention, but I told her I must remain indoors till the 28 days elapses to know whether the worst will happen or whether I would be vindicated. From one day to weeks and then months elapsed, yet I did not die or suffer any ailment. Many people advised me to run away under the period because they might come and poison me, but I remained resolute to see the final result.”
Deity to the rescueAfter staying for three months without any calamity befalling Ossai and his family, he decided to seek vengeance through a dangerous deity in the community known as Ohejigwuoke or Oohe Imufu. “I went to the soothsayer for divination and he told me the gods are behind me. He encouraged me that the gods are already crying over the oppression meted out to me. I went to the chief priest of the Ohejigwuoke deity and told him that I’ve come to sue all my oppressors in the deity’s court. He asked me whether my people were aware of my visit/intention and warned me that the deity is dangerous and can avenge with serious consequences without looking back, but when I explained to the chief priest what my oppressors did to me, he did not hesitate to let me go ahead with my plan.
“The man wondered how people could be so mean to do this kind of thing and told me that if I wasn’t innocent of the allegation against me, I would have died within eight days. I told him I had not suffered even a pinch of headache since then. The chief priest gave me a list of all the requirements needed for the ritual to sue my oppressors. The first is N12,000 cash, among other things to buy totalling about N120,000. I didn’t have money, but I had to borrow it that even now I’m still paying back.
The ritual was rounded up with a 21 cannon gun salute and I was indoors again for another 28 days without a razor blade touching my hair. I told the chief priest that I must go to any length to establish my innocence over what I was accused of since the allegation of killing a fellow human being is so weighty. I shaved my hair after eight native weeks and the chief priest, after the absolution rites, threw a kola nut to the deity and the kola lobe mysteriously opened, which was an indication that the gods had seen my innocence.
As is the custom of our people too, I organized a feast of vindication known as Ogayo in our local parlance, with foods, assorted drinks, music and another cannon gun shots.
I went to the deity to establish my innocence and to urge the deity to also avenge me.
No reason to killOssai continued to maintain his innocence over the accusation levelled against him, while still lamenting how he was treated.
“Killing a fellow human being goes with long time consequences. I don’t see why I should take the life of another human being created by God, while I have my own children and pray to God for long life and prosperity. I have suffered all my life that it seems suffering has become my second name. I laboured for many years before I raised N120 then, which I paid to the same Igwe Remigius Attah to teach me how to drive. After learning driving, I was a driver for many years until I retired recently, and all the time I shuttled on the road, I believe God couldn’t have made me to survive accidents many years as a driver if I had shed innocent blood.
Continued stigmatizationThough time has passed and Mathew Ossai and family are still alive; the aftermath of the treatment meted him has continued to haunt him. Sunday Sun gathered that he was prevented from assuming the family’s representative at the Council of Elders of the community.
“The most senior person in our family, who is now old and weak, nominated me to represent the family at the Onyishi (eldest man) Imufu’s traditional council, but the council of elders said I’m not qualified until we clear the outstanding issue of killing somebody and drinking corpse water hanging over our family. I have handed the matter over to God, our Creator, because I don’t have the power to fight this battle. But I’m also waiting that probably if God keeps me alive and I become the eldest in our kindred, I will then know whether they would give me the Nna, the symbolic ofo insignia carried by the oldest to represent the custodian of the ancestral lineage of the family.”
A man of tradition“I don’t have money to pursue a case in court. I am a man of tradition from birth. All my life I’ve always liked village cultural displays. I have an Omabe masquerade, which I use to entertain people during Omabe festival in our community. I also cure venereal diseases with traditional roots and herbs. I’m one of the progenitors of Omabe dance (Ida ogwu) in Enugu Ezike, but I’ve been on self-imposed recess for some time now because of what happened to me.”
Plotting my downfall“Apart from collecting money to teach me how to drive, all the years I served in his company had always been off and on as he would always seize the vehicle from me. Sometimes I would carry wine to plead with him to release the vehicle again to me, but within a short interval he would strike again and retrieve the vehicle from me.
“It was like that for many years before I saved and bought my own car. But, do you know I had series of accidents that at time a popular (now retired) broadcaster from our place, Paddy Eke, featured it in his programme - Nsukka Deejenu - in those days (rises up to show the picture of the car).
“Do you know that in those days too, I had an urgent financial need and approached him to borrow me N5,000 in lease of a large parcel of my land, but he insisted I must sell it outright to him? Because I needed the money badly I had let go, even when my earlier plan was to pay him back the money years later and retrieve the land. Today, that parcel of land is worth more than N3 million.
“Those days when I served him, I used to buy grasscutter meat for him while my daily account was greater than other drivers in the company.
They just hate my husband, says wife Ossai’s first wife, Josephine Eze, corroborated her husband’s position and confirmed that the deceased family had a long history of liver-related sickness. “We had known the deceased, Fidelis Attah, as a bag of sickness (akpa oya). Since his childhood days, he had a slightly bloated belly, which people pointed out was as a result of swollen liver.
“When he died, his brothers did not report any suspicion to the kindred (Umunna) but just came and bundled my husband away to spoil his name. The scars of the past have continued to haunt us anytime we remember the humiliating experience.
“Had it been they reported the matter to t Umunna, the kindred would have risen in defence of my husband despite the fact that he is the only son, but his oppressors just used power and might to treat us this way. Some of the kindred members reprimanded the Igwe later for what he did to my husband, though in a subtle way because they fear him. But anyone who witnessed how they handled the matter would know they would have killed my husband if he had refused to drink the bath water from the corpse.
Human rights group wades inDesirous of getting justice over the treatment meted out to Mathew Ossai, some indigenes of Imufu community contacted the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) to ensure that Ossai is not only absolved of any wrongdoing but to punish his persecutors.
The South East Zonal Director of the organization, Barrister Olu Omotayo, has petitioned the Enugu State government and the Chairman of Igbo Eze North Local Government Area and urged them to investigate cases of human rights abuses and obnoxious practices in the local council with a view to curbing them.
Condemning the practice of subjecting people to drink water used to bath a deceased in order to prove innocence, the CLO described such act as not only “barbaric but inhuman”.
In a statement entitled “Nigerian human rights update, urgent need to curb obnoxious practices in our society,” the CLO said it was high time the government started looking into the welfare of people in the rural communities as the atrocities committed by few opportune people in these communities are gradually increasing thereby encroaching on people’s rights and subjecting them to great humiliation and torture.
The action meted out to Mathew Ossai allegedly by Eze Remigius Attah, the CLO said, is “condemnable in all ramifications”.
The organization therefore, urged the state government and local council authority in the area to urgently look into the matter with a view to ensuring that justice is done as the circumstances of the case demand.
Traditional ruler denies allegationsSunday Sun was at the home of Eze Remigius Attah, Ikeoha I of Imufu Autonomous Community. The traditional ruler denied ever forcing Matthew Ossai to drink water used in bathing his late brother.
He accused some people from his community as the brain behind such stories, even as he maintained that the said brother of his died before he became a traditional ruler. He also said that he wouldn’t talk much owing to the fact that he was still mourning one of his brothers, who also died recently.
“This is all fabricated lies to tarnish my image. My brother they are referring to -Fidelis Attah - died in August 2006 when my father, Attah nwa Ugwuanyi, was still alive. As a man whose father was still alive, I didn’t have any power of my own as custom demands to impose decisions on anybody. I did not force Mathew Ossai to drink any water used in bathing my late brother. Then, I wasn’t the traditional ruler. It was in 2008 that I received my certificate of recognition as a traditional ruler.
“This is the handiwork of those who have personal hatred for me. Immediately I became the Igwe, some disgruntled elements in our community have refused to let me have rest.
They confused the eldest man (Onyishi) in our community and went ahead to sue me in court, saying that I’m not their recognized traditional ruler.
“On the day of my coronation as traditional ruler, all of them were present. They ate and drank, and the Commissioner for Chieftaincy Matters in Enugu State was physically present. Those of them fighting me today were there and it is on record that they told the commissioner that we don’t have any problem in our community. “Why they are fighting me today I don’t know, and it is a pity that influential people in other communities use their resources and connection to develop their place, but my own subjects use theirs to foment trouble.
“The three architects of discord in my community include a journalist now based in Lagos, a senior police officer based in Abuja and another journalist-turned oil and gas dealer based in Lagos. They devised this new strategy to ginger up their diversionary politics since they felt they are losing out in court,” Eze Remigius said.
Further discoveriesOther indigenes of Imufu community, who spoke with Sunday Sun confirmed there was uneasy calm in the community as a result of Igweship tussle. A reliable source, who pleaded anonymity, said some people in the community are fighting the traditional ruler because, according to them, the man became Igwe “through the back door”. “Don’t be surprised over this matter. This is all about politics and interest.
There is a man nursing an interest to become the Igwe of the community after his retirement, another prominent man is also interested in the stool, while yet another one also of the opinion that the administration of the community should be left in the hands of the elders. All these characters though, with personal interests, have all united in one purpose – Operation-remove-the-Igwe-by-all-means possible. That’s the crux of the matter.”
Another source also confirmed that the traditional ruler has over six different cases pending in the court right now because of the Igweship tussle. Speaking with Sunday Sun, Kenneth Ogbaje, a pastor of a Pentecostal church, is of the opinion that Igweship tussle or not, the issue of forcing somebody to drink water used in bathing a corpse should not be swept under the carpet.
“Nemesis has a way of catching up with those who do evil. It is very important that the relevant government agencies should investigate this matter with a view to finding out the truth as regards the claims and counter claims. This is because injustice, according to Martin Luther King, is a threat to justice everywhere. The essence of administering justice is to placate the offended, punish the offender to serve as deterrent to others so that evil will cease in the land,” he said.
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