Ikechukwu Okoronkwo: Remembering Victims of Witch hunts and Ritual Attacks in Imo state -By Leo Igwe

The International Day Against Witch Hunts, marked every August 10, provides an opportunity for people around the world to highlight abuses linked to witchcraft beliefs and ritual attacks, both past and present. Early in the 21st century, witch hunting persists with force and ferocity in Imo state. Ritual murder continues to wreak havoc in the lives of people, in families and communities. Unfortunately, not enough has been done to dispel witchcraft suspicions and ritual suppositions. Efforts to stem the tide of abuses linked to witch beliefs have yielded limited results. The required political will has not been mustered or deployed against witch-hunting in the state. A critical mass of advocates has not been reached. Witch hunting festers, and ritual sacrifice rages in the region.

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches is not letting up pressure and pursuit to end witch hunting and make ritual attacks history in this state. Ending witch persecution has become a moral imperative. For this year’s edition, activities have been devoted to remembering and honouring victims. These innocent persons have been violated, harmed, injured, or killed by those motivated by witchcraft and ritualistic imaginaries. As we all know, the victims are many, too many to count. They are men and women, young and old, able and disabled, rich and poor. They are traditionalists, Christians, Muslims, and non-religious. Most of the victims are vulnerable members of the population, children, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Many victims never survived to tell their stories, stories of how deluded and misguided individuals cut short their lives, joys, and sojourn in this world; stories of how those blinded by superstitions, illusions, and irrationalisms tortured and tormented them to death.

Some of the victims survived but have never told their stories, stories of false accusations, false and forced confessions, stories of nightmares, brutality, savage attacks, and mistreatment that they endured and have continued to live with. Some survived but could not make it here today. Instead, they are somewhere silently nursing their pain, stigma, and trauma, the psycho-social scar, hurt, and wound inflicted on them by persons bereft of conscience and compassion. Some victims and survivors are here to recount their experiences and struggles. These victims are not abstract beings; they are our brothers and sisters, family and community members, countrymen and women, friends and colleagues. These victims are human beings like you and me. They fell victim not only because they were unlucky and found themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong persons with wrong beliefs, but because, as a society, we failed in our duty to protect them. Now imagine that minute, these wrongs and failures came together and translated into their harm or death, destruction of property, and banishment. Imagine the moment these baseless and absurd suppositions translated into jungle justice and trial by ordeal.

Let us pause for a moment to remember these innocent victims, known or unknown, living or dead. In Imo state, one person stands out who should be remembered today. That is the 11-year-old school boy, late Anthony Ikechukwu Okoronkwo. As reported, on September 19, 1996, a gardener at the Otokoto Hotel, Innocent Ekeanyanwu, lured Ikechukwu, who hawked groundnuts, into the hotel’s premises. Ekeanyanwu gave him a drugged cold beverage, and he became unconscious. He killed the boy, removed the liver and penis, and buried the remains in the premises of the hotel. It was reported that this revulsive act was motivated by money ritual beliefs- the superstitious idea that people can make money or become rich or successful through ritual sacrifice of human beings or their body parts.

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches urges the Imo state government to immortalize Mr Ikechukwu Okoronkwo. I was told the government named a street after him. But that is insufficient. Okoronkwo deserves a better memorization. A monument should be erected in Owerri in remembrance of this schoolboy who lost his life under tragic and unfortunate circumstances. The day he was killed, September 19, should be declared a public holiday or a day to raise awareness against witch hunts and ritual attacks in the state. Money ritual belief is still widespread. Killings for money, ritual, and sacrifice still take place in cities and communities. Rebranded as organ harvesting or as yahoo plus killings, money ritual manifestations persist in the state. Immortalization of Ikechukwu Okoronkwo would bring closure to his family and to the families of other victims, living and dead, past and present. The immortalization should send a strong and clear message to victims, survivors, and their families: We understand your pain, suffering, and loss, and you will be forgotten no more!

To also honour the memory of Mr Okoronkwo and other victims, it is important to highlight mistaken beliefs and misconceptions that motivate witch hunting and ritual attacks, and critically evaluate them. Do alleged witches crashland on their way to night meetings as often reported? Are there small rooms or cupboards in homes where human heads vomit money in the local currency? Do people in the villages magically harm businesses of people, or cause sickness, accidents, and death to their relatives in cities, or overseas? A reorientation of the public is needed to reason them out of the illusory notions that ritual sacrifice yields money; it does not. Or that people can turn into cats and birds, appear, disappear, or take up spiritual forms to harm others, especially their enemies or relatives. Nobody turns into a bird and flies out at night to eat ‘amusu'(witchcraft) as popularly believed.

Of course, there are charlatans, pastors and priests, mallams, prophets and prophetesses who peddle this nonsense for pecuniary reasons. These mystical con artists use tricks and make-believe to manipulate people.

The state should hold them accountable and responsible for the deceit, misinformation, and disinformation they spread, for the harm they cause, aid, abet, and perpetrate, and for the confusion they cause in families and communities. State agencies should call to the carpet those who impersonate god and spirits, those who claim to have powers that they do not have. Those who claim to do what they cannot do. Those who make magical and supernatural power claims and use such claims to exploit poor, ignorant, gullible folks. Authorities must hold accountable those who instill occult fears and anxieties, incite parents against their children, and children against their parents and grandparents. Those self-styled godmen and women who coerce people into saying what they do not know and to confess to doing what they did not do, and cannot do. In August last year, one of these impostors organised a church program in Owerri titled, That witch must die. If they are not hunting witches, they are casting demons, jinns, mamiwota, and other imaginary entities away, pretending to be doing something, while doing nothing.

It is important to note that governments cannot address these issues alone. Individuals and non-governmental agencies must come on board and make some contribution. Ending witch hunts and ritual attacks is a collective responsibility. All hands must be on deck. Everyone must be vigilant and report any suspicious event, movement, or activity in their neighbourhood. The witch/demon hunters and ritualists who came for the victims of yesterday could target you and me today or tomorrow. So nobody should be complacent. No one can afford to be indifferent because everyone is at risk of being attacked or killed for witchcraft or ritual belief. Everyone should become an advocate and join efforts with the government in tackling the problem of witch-hunting and ritual attacks everywhere in the state.

Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches.