The recent discovery of a ritualist dungeon in Umumbaa Ndiagu community in Ezeagu area of Enugu State, sent shock waves across the country as to the extent some revered individuals are soiling their hands just to belong among the rich in the society, DAMIAN DURUIHEOMA reports .

Enugu, the Coal City state, has of late, been in the news for the wrong reasons. In what could easily pass as a scene from a horror film, a ritual dungeon was discovered in Ezeagu area of the state.

This den, where unspeakable horrors have been committed, has a pit where captives used for rituals were dumped after vital organs had been taken out of their bodies. The pit is situated newr a shrine manned by a self-acclaimed native doctor, High Chief Levi Onyeka Obu, popularly known as ?Ezeani? or ?E-Dey-Play-E-Dey-Show? in his own compound.

Inside Ezeani?s compound were his two uncompleted mansions where his clients trooped into his shrine.

In one of his video adverts, seen by our correspondent, Ezeani said he could make people rich, give husbands ladies seeking for one and children to the baren through a deity he called ?Akpugo Ezenwaya?.

In most of his videos, the native doctor either frequently showed himself blessing exotic vehicles some of his clients brought for his blessing or himself with big cows brought to him by some of his clients for appreciation of ?good work done?. However, none of his said beneficiaries ever appeared in his videos.

With these, he had lots of clients, who regularly consulted his shrine for various issues, especially quick money, husband for ladies and child bearing for married women.

Widely known as Ichie Million because of his flamboyant lifestyle, Ezeani?s ostentatious display of wealth and frequent spraying of bundles of money at public functions always drew crowds of youthful admirers to such events.

He belonged to some social clubs, including the one he was sometimes seen appearing in all red attire with a scary drawing of human skeleton on its back.

Ezeani is a recipient of several awards, including a recent one given to him by Ndi Gboo Voice Newspaper and Magazine, Awka, Anambra State, in his house.

Ezeani?s victims were mainly women, young girls and little children, judging from the different human bodies found in his compound. Most of his victims hailed from Umumbaa Ndiagu community, its neighbours and their environs in Ezeagu area.

His mode of operation, it was gathered, was to use human beings for rituals and dump their remains inside a soak away pit he covered well for this purpose.

And Ezeani was alleged not to be operating alone; he worked together with some men whose duty was to abduct people he would use as sacrifice for his clients, most of whom were young men driving exotic cars.

Ezeagu?s alleged den of horror was tucked inside the sleepy Umumba Ndiagu community in Ezeagu Local Government Area, Enugu, a wilderness of sort, not far from the community centre populated by natives. The scenario makes it all so unbelievable that such a camp could operate even for a day without the inhabitants of the community knowing.

Ezeani?s suspected ritual activities were busted after a 13-year-old girl was abducted and rescued from his compound by some youths and vigilante operatives in the community.

The child?s abduction, according to village sources, was perfected through deception. She was said to be accompanying her father to the farm when two men posing as stranded motorcyclists deceived the girl?s father by pleading with him to let them use his machete to repair their motorcycle.

Seeing their situation, the man decided to help, but they abducted his daughter right before him and sped off to an unknown destination. The man?s cry of anguish attracted villagers, who immediately joined in the search for the little girl.

The incident occurred on Monday, May 26, while the search for the hapless girl continued into the following day. It was while the search was on that some villagers reported hearing cries from a bush near the compound of a native doctor. The vigilante team, sensing that something was amiss, stormed the premises, against Ezeani?s thunderous orders that nobody should enter his compound. There and then it was discovered that the child they were looking for was kept inside the soak away pit in Ezeani?s compound. The grim sight led to more shocking discoveries of decapitated bodies inside the same soak away pit.

Among the numerous other bodies recovered was that of a missing student said to be of the community?s secondary school, who was part of the candidates writing the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The girl was said to have left her school after sitting one of her papers two weeks ago but could not get home to her parents. There was also a pregnant woman whose body was yet to become fully decomposed. These victims had their bodies mutilated beyond recognition.

The discovery threw the community into shock, prompting the youths into a frenzy of anger to the point that they began to attack and burn his house, while Ichie Million, their once respected kinsman, escaped.

He was, however, arrested two days later at the Seme Border while attempting to escape into the Republic of Benin. He was said to have been identified and apprehended by a gallant Immigration officer, Prince Orji Ugochukwu, who rejected N10 million offer to let the native doctor off the hook.

The victim?s story

In a viral video recorded after she was rescued, the 13-year-old victim recalled before the anxious villagers: ?My father and I went to fetch firewood, which we would use to fry our garri. His men came and asked my dad for his cutlass, which he gave them.

Suddenly, they grabbed me and kept me in a pit they had dug. I then started crying and the Neighborhood Watch operatives heard my cry and came to rescue me.?

The state government also finished off what remained of the mansions by demolishing them in line with the extant laws of the state against the use of one?s building for kidnapping and other nefarious activities.

The following day, students said to be of the community?s secondary school, took to the streets in protest against the missing student, whose remains were among those reportedly found in the native doctor?s pit.

Villagers speak

Villagers, who spoke to BBC Pidgin, said the native doctor had returned from Togo where he claimed he was doing his business.

One of them said: ?Suddenly, he started building a house. We were actually thinking he had made money. We never knew he came home to do uncanny business with human blood.

?I can tell you that all we knew about him was that he is a native doctor. He used to shoot local canon guns, which we all thought was to send his message usually at midnights. We never knew he was a killer.?

Another villager described Ezeani as a very strong juju man, who used his influence to forcibly take people?s lands.

?People were beginning to be afraid of him because of his growing influence as a rich man and a medicine man.

?So, anyone who had land dispute with him, someone found a way to let it go,? the villager said.

Ezeani?s accomplices

According to the police, three persons connected to the crime were arrested, namely Uche Kingsley Agumba (33), Ilo Nweze Onyedikachi (36) and Ejike Odinwankpa (38).

Agumba is a well-known furniture maker in Aba, Abia State. Those who know him closely said he does not play with religious activities as a Christian. It was gathered that he was regularly visiting Enugu for the popular ?Adoration? religious programme.

He was seen in the video stripped naked with tied hands and feet while the youths went about burning and destroying all structures in the compound.

He, however, denied involvement in the killings, but he was said to have admitted frequenting the native doctor?s residence for ritual purposes.

The suspect explained during interrogation by the angry youths: ?I am a business person and I came here. After I finished performing some sacrifices, it remained for a water sacrifice to be performed for me.

?I was waiting for everything to be done for me. There are things to be done but I don?t know what he used to do the things.

?But what they do here is that as a newcomer, they normally send the person on an errand.

?The owner of this place, Daddy Ezeani, asked me to protect this place and scare anyone coming here away.?

Writing about the suspect on Facebook, one of the men who grew up with him, Victor Kaycee, expressed shock that Agumba could be identified with such a business.

He wrote: ?A few days ago, I came across a video that shook me to the core. It was about one of the accomplices of that Enugu native doctor who was recently arrested for ritual killings.

?To my shock, the name mentioned was Uche Kingsley, popularly known as Agumba?a name I?ve known for years.

?At first, I wasn?t sure it was the same Uche I knew. The name, the nickname, the location?it all sounded too familiar. But I brushed it off. I told myself it must be someone else.

?After all, the Uche I knew was a deeply religious man, someone who never missed church programmes and was even known to travel from Aba to Enugu for special Catholic events.

?He was one of those people who would question your faith if you missed church. He often challenged me for not being as ?serious? with religion as he was.

?But when I watched the video again and heard that the man dealt in furniture materials at Ariaria, Aba?it hit me. I knew this Uche. This was the same guy I once shared memories with.

?Out of curiosity and concern, I searched for him online. And when I saw his pictures, my heart dropped. It was truly him?Uche Agumba.

?We go way back. Uche served a man from Uga, Anambra State and I remember when he got settled around 2011 or 2012 after serving for seven years.

?We were all young men trying to make it. I recall one particular day we returned from Port Harcourt, and he said to me, ?before I get married, I must be a very wealthy man.?

?I reminded him that he was the only son of his parents. He nodded and said I know?but this is what I must do.

?Everyone who was in the building materials line at Ariaria back then knew Uche. From 2005 to 2011 to 2013, and now. We trained together at Osusu Primary School field before I moved out of Aba.

?I can?t remember him ever missing church. He was deeply involved in religious activities?chartering buses to Enugu weekly, buying and selling bottles of anointed water and yoghurt after the programmes.

?I checked his Facebook recently?he still shares posts from those same church programmes.

?What breaks my heart is the double life he was living. I called a friend in Ariaria to confirm, and he told me it was true?Uche is the one.

?He also said Uche is still religious. The same church stickers are all over his shop, his car, and even his house. It?s like he never stopped pretending.

?I?m not here to judge, but this has left me shaken. Someone we knew, someone we trained with, someone we thought stood for God?now exposed as a ritualist and kidnapper??

Speaking with our correspondent, a public affairs analyst, Dan Ukwu, said this heinous act is not an isolated incident but part of a growing pattern of bloodshed fuelled by a dangerous obsession with instant wealth and power.

He said the current culture of impunity that has permeated every aspect of the Nigerian society had encouraged the evil and would likely remain with us for a long time to come.

?Politicians and other state officials are merciless in their looting of the treasury. They amass wealth without fear of discovery even as their ostentatious and extravagant lifestyle seems to mock the relevance of the many anti-corruption agencies that populate our country, daring them to discover the source of their stolen wealth if they could.

?Kidnappers are no less brazen: they stay on the highways, abduct as many people as they can and rape as many as suits their fancy.

?And the ritual killers? They pick their victims in broad daylight, push them into vehicles and carry them away in the presence of eager onlookers without anyone asking questions.

?Some of these traders in human merchandise go about their business under the pretext of being mentally unbalanced. Which leaves one wondering what people wouldn?t do just to get by.?

Proffering solution to the ritual killing and activities, a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Kelly Odaro, said addressing this crisis requires more than just police crackdowns or demolition of the suspects? buildings.

In one of his articles, Odaro called for a fundamental shift in societal values ?one that prioritises ethical wealth over ill-gotten riches, adding that religious institutions, traditional rulers, and community leaders must take a firm stand against the glorification of questionable affluence.

?Until society collectively condemns and rejects wealth acquired through bloodshed, such horrors will persist, leaving a trail of innocent victims in their wake.

?Once upon a time, wealth in Nigerian society was synonymous with industry, resilience, and ingenuity. The elders of old (traders, craftsmen, farmers, and entrepreneurs) prided themselves on the sweat of their brows. A man?s affluence was a direct reflection of his diligence and years of toil.

?Today, however, a corrosive paradigm has taken root, one that glorifies instant affluence, irrespective of the means through which it is obtained. The insidious doctrine of ?making it by any means necessary? has replaced the time-honoured principle of hard work.

?This paradigm shift is not accidental. It is the consequence of a deeply flawed value system where wealth, no matter how dubiously acquired, commands reverence.

?The very individuals who should be ostracised for their morally reprehensible conduct are, instead, venerated. This toxic culture emboldens desperate youth to explore even the most abhorrent means to attain affluence.

?The most disheartening aspect of this trend is the complicity (both tacit and overt) of society?s supposed moral gatekeepers. Religious leaders, who should be the custodians of righteousness, have too often become enablers of corruption.

?In the grandiose edifices of faith, where the gospel of prosperity is preached with fervour, those with questionable sources of wealth are celebrated.

?They are given front-row seats, called upon for prayers, and sometimes elevated to positions of religious leadership, all because their ill-gotten wealth fuels the construction of mega worship centres.

?Traditional rulers, the custodians of Nigeria?s cultural ethos, are equally culpable. The hallowed institution of chieftaincy, once reserved for men of impeccable character, has been commercialised.

?Titles that once symbolised honour are now available to the highest bidder. The affluent, irrespective of their moral standing, are conferred with chieftaincy titles in elaborate ceremonies attended by society?s cr?me de la cr?me.

?In many instances, these so-called ?chiefs? are known for their nefarious dealings, yet they are paraded as paragons of success.

?The elite, politicians, and corporate magnates are not innocent either. Many continue to patronise, endorse, and associate with individuals whose wealth bears the stench of blood money.

?By doing so, they lend credibility to criminality and normalise the abnormal. (The Nation)

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