BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
There was confusion in Egwudinagu Village in Amachi Community, Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State when the villagers apprehended, stripped and banished one of them, Emmanuel Nwija, for allegedly being a wizard and also terrorising them with charms.
They also accused Nwija, aged 60, of obstructing the progress of youths of the community and also killing some villagers through his diabolical powers.
Nwija fell into trouble when some natives saw him allegedly spreading some whitish and powdery substance suspected to be charms on the road.
The angry mob attacked and stripped the suspect completely, paraded him round the village and drove him out of the community.
In their separate allegations, the villagers said the sexagenarian was involved in diabolical activities, which they claimed had caused setbacks to their means of livelihood.
The villagers who stormed the suspect’s house recently after he was nabbed, found photos of family members, burial brochure of a late relation, women’s underwear and some strands of hair, which were reportedly fixed in Nwija’s “fetish altar”.
It was gathered that Nwija had been terrorising the village and threatening to deal with whoever failed to abide by his decisions. Some of the youths who paraded the suspect accused him of coveting married women and having extra marital affairs with them.
Other indigenes of the community, including aged mothers, were seen cheering the youths for daring to invade the alleged fetish altar of the suspected wizard.
However, while being paraded, Nwija explained that his trouble started on the Ojiji new yam festival day in the community when he found a snake in his compound, killed it and threw the carcass on the road.
Nwija disclosed that he was accosted by the youths while he was discharging a poisonous charm he found inside one of his wives’ rooms on the road.
“It was on Ojiji festival day that a snake was found in my compound where my wife and children were relaxing. I killed the snake, removed the head and tail and threw the carcass along the road. A few days after, I discovered a poison in one of my wives’ rooms and I quickly packed it and disposed of it at the same point I burnt the snake which villagers saw. This triggered the commotion that brought me into this (attack). I didn’t tell any of the village leaders until the day the people invited me for questioning and searched my room,” he said.
Reacting, the village head, who is a cousin of the suspected wizard, Nwija Mmaduabuchi, described the incident as an eyesore and called on some villagers who engaged in the act of mobbing the suspect to desist as the tradition would be used to sanitise the land.
Mmaduabuchi narrated that the incident occured when the poisonous substance was found by the road side and the entire neighbourhood was invited, a situation that prompted a search and subsequent admittance of Nwija of spraying the poisonous substance.
He urged the aggrieved persons whose photos and other belongings were found at the fetish altar to remain calm and law abiding, saying that a proper method would be employed in resolving the issue.
On his part, the Town Union President, Ogbonna Cletus, alleged that Nwija had held many indigenes of the community in bondage before he was exposed, adding that elders in the community had commenced traditional cleansing methods to address their plights.
Meanwhile, some of the youth leaders, Ugochukwu Ojike and Friday Nwizi, accused the suspect of being a thorn in the flesh of his fellow natives and disclosed that Nwija had been banished from the community for life.
