From: OKEY SAMPSON, Aba

He had a distressing story to tell. But, even about a month after he escaped the brutal treatment he suffered allegedly in the hands of his kinsmen, Esau Ihemeje still struggled with his memory and words while trying to recount his ordeal, a sign             Patrick, his elder brother who accompanied him along with Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, Executive Director of Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD) and another man, said indicated the  residual trauma of his battering by the community.

The three men had walked into the Aba office of The Sun on June 3, to report the brutalisation of Ihemeje, 40, by members of his Umuokenyi – Ndiolumbe community, Nvosi, in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government of Abia State for allegedly practising witchcraft!

He was not only chained and severely battered, but also banished from the village for 14 years!

But, the victim denied the charge, describing it as a mere ploy “of giving a dog bad name in order to hang it”.

Ihemeje, who claimed to be a block molder and farmer, is seeking justice and redress for alleged false and malicious accusation and subsequent inhuman treatment meted out to him.

Once upon a ‘witch catcher’

His village falls within the cluster of communities mostly in the southern zone of the state, where a self-styled ‘witch catcher’ simply named Utu held sway.

Utu was said to have stormed the area between 2006/2007 and “carved an empire, making himself the accuser, prosecutor and judge over matters concerning witchcraft.”

Utu got the subtle backing of authorities, especially youths, who saw him as a ‘messiah’ who came to sanitise their communities from witches responsible for their economic stagnation and other ills over the years.

But, many of the so-called witches claimed they were accused falsely and for those lucky to be alive, they have unforgettable and dreadful stories of torture and harassment to tell.

Saturday Sun learnt that   Utu and his cohorts normally stormed a community on a designated day and in a carnival-like atmosphere, sat in judgment over all persons accused fairly or falsely of witchcraft and his judgment had no appeal. Only few of those so sentenced were said to survive the excruciating treatment they were subjected to. The government and the police apparent indifference appeared to have lent a tacit approval to the man’s shenanigans.

How trouble started

Ihemeje said he was in front of his family’s compound at Ndiolumbe around 2:00am on May 2,  when two persons he knew led some other men in. “I demanded to know why they came at that time to my house and they told me they were vigilante members. I then asked them whether it was our compound they were deployed to watch over that night. I told them that if there was anything like vigilante that all members of the community should be made aware through a town crier… but, before I could say any other thing, they accused me of witchcraft,” Ihemeje said.

The group arrested and carried him to another compound and threatened to deal with him, he said. “They said it had been a long time they had wanted to get me. As they carried me to that compound, they tied my hands and legs with rope, beat me with clubs and used machete to inflict injuries on my body including head. At a point, they wanted to use the machete to cut off my two legs, God saved me, but the deep cuts are still there on my legs,” he further narrated.

More injustice

Ihemeje said he was subjected to worse humiliation as other people joined in beating and inflicting machete cut injuries on him, while also making jest of him His traducers, he said, boasted that they would kill him, without any consequence, because he was a witch. “As they beat me, they, including the women took me to the village hall, calling me a witch and making jest of me as if I was a common criminal. He also alleged that the mob attacked and destroyed his farm by pouring acid on the crops.

After the crude public display, Ihemeje alleged that his accusers took him to his house, forced the door open and destroyed all his household property, after which he was stripped naked and carried to his maternal home at Umuanunu village in Obingwa Local Government area, as customs demanded.

Ihemeje said he had, had no opportunity of  reporting the matter to the traditional ruler of the community, because the people had barred his access to the community. “I have been hiding somewhere outside the community as they said they will kill me if I return.”

Rejected by maternal home

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It is a known custom in Igbo land that when one has problem in his father’s place, he runs to his maternal kinsmen to take refuge. His mother’s people would bring him back to broker peace. But in Ihemeje’s case, his mother’s community reportedly rejected him on the basis of the ill-treatment meted out to him by his father’s people.

“My maternal relations objected to the action of my people and asked them to take me back to my home, insisting that the way I was treated was an infringement on my human rights, that that is not done within the area. But surprisingly, when I went back, these people used machete to pursue me, insisting they would kill me and eat my meat if I stepped into the community.”

Condition for return

Ihemeje’s kinsmen reportedly banished him from the community, saying he could only return after 14 years on condition that he paid these fines- nine cartons of beer, nine crates of malt, nine cartons of Legend beer, three bottles of hot drinks, three jars of palm wine, 36 pieces of kola nut, 36 alligator pepper and payment of N20, 000. Ihemeje said he signed the undertaking under duress.

Fight for justice

    Ihemeje’s elder brother, Patrick, alleged that their kinsmen acted “out of human intolerance” insisting that his brother was not a witch. He alleged that his brother’s dehumanisation was masterminded by “four or five persons”, whom, he alleged called in the villagers when my brother was about to die so that it would look as if all the villagers were involved.”

He demanded that the law be made to take its course, because his kinsmen took the law into their hands.”

     

Community insists on banishment

When the newspaper visited Ndiolumbe on June 10, his alleged traducers all declared Ihemeje a witch, which, they said, informed their action. They gave graphic description of how Ihemeje had allegedly become a terror to the community through his practice of witchcraft accusing him of cases of illnesses, deaths and economic downturn in individual lives. 

Although they admitted that they banished Ihemeje to Umuanunu, his maternal home in line with the custom of the area, they vehemently denied brutalising and torturing him.

According to them, his maternal relations may be responsible for that, as they might have felt disgraced by his action.

But, the village head of Umuanunu, Ifeanyi Nwachukwu, denied that his people touched Ihemeje as alleged by the Ndiolumbe people. He said his people asked Ihemeje’s accusers to go back with him because of the way he was battered before they brought him, “because we were afraid he might die in our place.”

He said his people were now looking for their son (Ihemeje) and planned to send emissaries to the traditional ruler of Ndiolumbe to demand his whereabouts.

However, Ndiolumbe people insisted that Ihemeje would not be allowed to return home unless he fulfilled the conditions laid down to appease the land. 

The traditional ruler of the community, Eze Godwin Ogbonna, a retired banker, told Saturday Sun during the visit that although he did not know Ihemeje what the villagers did was in line with the tradition and custom of the place, if indeed, it was established that he was a witch. “We do not have room for the practice of witchcraft in this community and anybody found to be involved; my people do not take it kindly with that person. So, banishing him to his maternal home was the right thing to have done and I’m still waiting for the people of Umuanunu to bring him to me in line with our custom, so that I can look into his case and hopefully broker peace.”

On why he did not adjudicate on the matter before Ihemeje was banished, the monarch said the matter was handled by Ihemeje’s village head, who, he said, had powers to decide on such matters and later report to him.

NGO’s intervention

A human rights organization, FENRAD which has waded into the matter has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris on Ihemeje’s behalf.

In the petition signed by FENRAD’s executive director, Nwafor, the organization cited several human rights abuses against him by the action of the community and urged the IGP to arrest and prosecute all those involved.