Tension and fear have engulfed Azia community in Ihiala local government area of Anambra State. The natives and other residents now live in grave fear. The situation was thrown up following a chilling discovery in one of the villages, Ukwakwa. It all happened during a Christian crusade organised by the Umuezeleke kindred to purify the community of every evil tendencies so as to reposition the area, natives and all residents on the path of progress in the new year. The crusade tagged: “Purification and Liberation”, was the initiative of Umuezeleke kindred resident in Lagos. Ahead of the one week programme, held last week, most natives of the community clan living outside the town returned home to participate in the programme. A popular fiery catholic priest in the area, Revd. Fr. Jude unigwe was invited to officiate in the crusade. He is in charge of St. Andrew’s Catholic Parish, Azia. So, virtually all Christian faithful in the area: men, women, young and the aged all converged on the Eke Igwe Market Square, venue of the crusade. Mid-way into the one-week crusade which started Sunday, January 11,2015, the priest apparently moved by the Spirit decided that they would go round the community to purify homes. As they moved round the village, they were shocked to their marrow on arrival at the home of one of their late native, Mr. Innocent Obodoefuna. In front of the compound was a sign-board boldly written on it: “Apostolic Deliverance Ministry (The Miracle Centre, a.k.a Bethlehem). The name of the head pastor is Prophet S. N. Nkume. It is believed to be a Christian worship centre. But the crusaders were later to discover to their utter amazement that the man was actually into fetish practices. The chairman of Umuezeleke association, Lagos branch, Mr. Innocent Okeke, narrated the sordid scene and practices going on at the so-called Apostolic Deliverance Ministry. “When we were going from house to house for purification and blessing of homes, we arrived at the compound at about 6pm and saw three people seated in the compound. They are two big men and lady. They came in two exotic vehicles: a Land Cruiser jeep and one other car that look like a Toyota Camry. We asked them about the prophet. When the prophet came out, we told him that we were going for house to house purification and blessing of homes. The man is not a native of our village. He is from Ubaha, a neighbouring village. Initially, he did not want us to come inside, but, when we resisted him, the landlady and her children who are part of what we were doing allowed us to go in. When we went in, we discovered that the man has shrines in all the four rooms he is occupying. He continued: “What we found most disturbing was that the man had some names of people, some of them are names of people in our town, some others are naives of some towns close to our town, and some names of people we do not know. These names were written in a paper and hung somewhere in one of the shrines. We also saw a piece of paper containing list of items, including leg of human being, chameleon, goat, cow, lizard, bat, and other animals. The man said that it is the list of things he wants to give to one of his clients who wants him to do some work for him. We also, saw a red candle moulded in human image. Some are male and some are female images. All of them have several pins pierced into them. We discovered that those people whose names are in the paper hung in the shrine are people whom their enemies brought to the man to either kill for them or to retard their progress. We were told that when somebody brings the name of his enemy, the man will ask the person what he wanted him to do to the person. Depending on the request of such client the man, after making incarnations with the person’s name, will pierce pin into any of the human-image red candle and after sometime, the person will fall sick and die. Some will start suffering retardation in one way or the other”. Following the discovery, the youths wanted to descend on the man but were restrained by the leaders of the town. The youths were said to have gone wild following the discovery of the name of a native of the area, one Israel Okafor who suddenly started vomiting blood and died. The prophet was later said to have fled the town. One Ngozi Mbadugha in her late 30s from the neighbouring Mbosi town was also alleged to be a victim of the fake prophet’s voodoo practice. Her name was also seen in the prophet’s shrine and was contacted. Her story is, indeed, a disturbing account. She disclosed that she mysteriously abandoned her Law programme in 2003 after completing her 400 level in the Faculty of Law, Ekiti State University. She said that she was forced to terminate her studies following the strict policy by the then vice-chancellor of the institution who, accordig to her, insisted that any student owing school fees would not be allowed to registered for final year courses. She said she was then owing school fees from 200 level because her elder brother who was training her suddenly took ill and later died. Also, even though she had many suitors, who proposed marriage to her, none of those marriage proposals clicked until sometime in 2007, but, even at that, the marriage later crashed barely after eight days. “Mine has been a long harrowing experience. I have been in a situation that has defied any treatment or laboratory tests. Nothing good had ever comes my way”, an apparently traumatized Ngozi told LEADERSHIP Sunday. According to Mr. Bonaventure Ucheagwu, another native of Umuezeleke, “We strongly believe that it is these type of fetish practices that are retarding the progress in our town; that is why we decided to organise this crusade to sanitise the whole town. We have banished the fake prophet from our community. We are not beating him; all we have told the police is that we don’t want him anymore in our town because he is polluting the town”. Though the President- general of Azia community and the traditional ruler, Mr. Kenneth Maduako and Igwe P. M.C. Ojiuro respectively were not available in the community when LEADERSHIP Sunday visited the town, officers at the Ihiala divisional police station confirmed the incident. Efforts to speak to alleged prophet Nkume was however unsuccessful as police said he was under protective custody. follow on Twitter @anambrastate_ng
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 02:49:38 +0000