…Soludo has shown political will to take tough decisions – Security source
BY CHARLES OLEWEZI
People of Anambra State and indeed Nigerians yesterday heaved a sigh of relief following an information that the Anambra State government has in its bid to rid the state of criminals and criminal activities pulled down a notorious and evil shrine popularly called Okija Shrine located in Umuofor village, Okija, in Ihiala Local Government Area of the state.
The shrine, operated by one Mr. Ekene Igboegbueze, a self-proclaimed native doctor, was reportedly used to deceive unsuspecting individuals with false promises of supernatural wealth and power. Its closure follows numerous complaints from Okija residents, who raised concerns over suspicious activities linked to the shrine.
Speaking on the development, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Security, Prince Ken Emeakai, confirmed that the government acted based on reports from the local community. He emphasized the state’s commitment to rooting out fraudulent practices and ensuring public safety.
“Igboegbueze’s business is illegal under Anambra State Homeland Security Laws,” Emeakai said, adding that properties acquired through the illicit trade have also been sealed.
“All items found in the shrine will undergo forensic examination, and the results will determine further government action,” he added.
Director of Operations for Agunechemba Security Outfit, Chinenye Ihenko, cautioned youths against patronizing fake native doctors and pastors. “The activities of fake spiritual leaders are fueling a get-rich-quick mentality in the state,” he said. “Our mandate is to sanitize Anambra, and we are committed to that. Anything contributing to the desecration of the state or aiding criminal activities will be eradicated. That, we can assure the people.”
He urged the youth to engage in legitimate ventures to avoid falling foul of the law.
Okija Shrine and its devilish acts
The political events especially after the return of democratic governance in 1999 showed that several Nigerian politicians were regular callers at the Okija shrine. They go there to seek power and also for oath taking mostly between political god-fathers and their god-sons. Few cases here will refresh our memories.
In 2003, it was revealed that former Anambra State governor, Chris Ngige visited the shrine in the company of Chris Uba to swear an oath of allegiance to his “political godfather” on winning the 2003 Anambra State gubernatorial election. Chris Uba extracted from his front-man, candidate-governor Chris Ngige, a signed letter of resignation that Uba kept as an insurance policy. Uba also kept a video of Ngige in the act of signing this letter. In April 2003, Ngige was duly elected as governor of Anambra State. However, as Uba had anticipated, within weeks of the election the godfather began to encounter serious differences with his protégé, Governor Ngige, over the awarding of state contracts. Uba decided to make use of the resignation letter. On 10 July 2003, he resorted to kidnapping Governor Ngige. It took the intervention of the Federal Government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo to save the situation. Thus, Okija shrine, the venue of the oath taking became popular for those seeking political power.
Similarly, in 2017 during the burial of a former Secretary to the Abia state Government, Dr Elekwachi Nwogbo, a former Governor of Abia State, Senator T.A Orji who also served with the late Nwogbo in the administration of former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, narrated how his principal took him and other political appointees in Abia state to the Okija shrine to take oath o allegiance.
Senator Orji declared: “if there is nothing else I achieved as Governor of Abia State I can at least beat my chest and say I ended idol worship in this state. On my watch, Commissioners and appointees didn’t have to go to Okija shrine or any other shrine to pledge allegiance to me and my mother or wife. Even the inherited debts and outstanding salaries/pensions were largely settled and I left the state as one of the least indebted in the country while adding many legacy projects that Abia people are enjoying to date”
Senator T. A. Orji was apparently angered by an earlier comment by Orji Uzor Kalu at the same event to the fact that no other governor in the history of the state has done as much as he did while in office. T.A Orji decided to blow open such a hidden practice that characterized the tenure of his predecessor in office as governor of Abia state.
Therefore, with that open declaration, it was no longer news that the Okija shrine was a notorious place.
Okija shrine was also noted for ritual killings. On 4 August 2004, some fifty officers of the Nigerian police, including elements of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, raided a complex consisting of a number of shrines in Umuhu Okija village, in the Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State. In the wooded groves where the principal shrines were located, the police found human skulls and the remains of dozens of corpses, some of them dismembered, some in coffins, others lying by the side of the path. Following this discovery, the police arrested a number of people whom they suspected of being officials of the Okija shrine, most of whom appear to have been members of one extended family. Eventually, the police paraded before the press in the national capital, Abuja, 31 suspects arrested in connection with the discovery of 83 corpses – including 63 that were headless – and twenty skulls.
The case attracted massive interest in the Nigerian press, particularly when it was confirmed that leading politicians had visited the shrine and sworn oaths there. Underlying much of the press commentary was the implication that the shrine may have been the site of so-called ‘ritual murders’, a name often applied to killings perpetrated in a search for spiritual power.
A further implication was that the shrine may have been the meeting-place of a secret society. Such associations have played a significant role in Nigerian politics since time immemorial, although they are explicitly outlawed by the country’s 1999 constitution.
The message transmitted by newspaper reports concerning arcane and possibly sinister religious practices and law-breaking at the Okija shrine caused acute embarrassment to politicians and intellectuals with roots in the southeast of the country, many of whom interpreted the police raid as a political manipulation designed to tarnish the reputation of Igbo people generally, by indirectly suggesting that their elites secretly engaged in religious practices of a disreputable nature. Joe Achuzia, the then secretary-general of the leading Igbo cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, claimed that the raid was designed to make the Igbo people appear as cannibals, and suggested that the police had more important things to do. The local ruler, the Igwe of Okija, also protested at the damage done to the image of the local community, convening a press conference during which he protested that ‘Okija people are no barbarians, we are no cannibals’. However, a former member of the national House of Representatives, a former chair of the caucus of representatives from the southeast of the country, publicly admitted that most of the members of the House from his part of the country had in fact patronized shrines like that at Okija.
Soludo’s political will to pull down the Okija shrine
Chukwuma Soludo, a Professor of Economics and current Executive Governor of Anambra state has shown tremendous political will to deal with the activities of criminals and fraudsters in the state. Few weeks ago precisely on January 26, 2025, a popular hotel in Oba, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State was demolished by Governor Soludo’s newly launched security outfit, Agunechemba, after the discovery of no fewer than 30 graves, shrines, and numerous charms within the premises.
It was gathered that the uncovered graves contained decayed bodies, evoking memories of the infamous 1996 Otokoto saga in Owerri, Imo State, where the murder of an 11-year-old boy exposed a notorious ritual killing network by some businessmen in the State. They were alleged to have been using a hotel to perpetrate murders with a view to obtaining body-parts for ritual purposes. The allegations led to major disturbances and the burning of some 25 buildings, including at least one church. It was perhaps as a result of incidents such as this that some commentators assumed the Okija shrine to have been used for equally nefarious purposes.
Governor Soludo introduced the Agunechemba security outfit to combat the persistent insecurity in Anambra State, which has defied efforts of previous administrations in the state.
A senior police officer in the state who preferred to speak anonymously confirmed that the governor is all out to root out insecurity and other crimes in the state. “Security is not something you make noise about. A lot is happening behind the scenes, and Anambra residents will soon heave a sigh of relief. The good thing is that all hands are on deck— the military, police, navy, DSS, Agunechemba, and Udo ga achi are all involved. We’ll get there soon,” the police source said.