By ALEX ENEBELI

The Umumba Ndiagu Community in Ezeagu Council Area of Enugu State, on Sunday, held a church service to cleanse the sacrilege committed by alleged ritualist, Levi Obieze.

The special Holy Mass was organised to cleanse their land allegedly defiled by Obieze with human blood and to seek God?s forgiveness.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Obieze?s crimes were exposed recently when his men allegedly kidnapped a 13-year-old girl, Miss Ukamaka Okonkwo, who was later rescued from the dungeon.

Further search by law enforcement agents revealed that he buried several people in a soak-away inside his compound including a pregnant woman, apparently for ritual purposes.

Obieze fled from the community to evade arrest but was later arrested by the Nigerian Immigration Service personnel at the Badagry-Seme Border in Lagos

Speaking at the event, the President-General of Umumba Ndiagu, Prince Ositadimma Ofuanyaegbunam, said Obieze hailed from Umuojo Isiagu Umumba not Ndiagu Umumba as reported in the media.

According to him, the two communities are brothers and share the same market and church together.

?Today we are doing a kind of reparation because we want to pray to God to forgive us the sins of our brother who killed many people here,? he said.

He appealed to the Enugu State Government to construct access road leading to the community, noting that it was the first time such crime was happening in the community.

In his homily, Rev. Fr. Rueben Okofia, the Parish Priest of St. Peter?s Parish, Umumba Ndiagu, Okofia said Obieze once warned and threatened him to stop spreading the gospel and exposing the blessed sacrament, claiming that they were disturbing him.

The priest said he did not take any action when he threatened him so as to avoid having loggerheads with him, but rather decided to fight him spiritually.

He disclosed that the prayer and cleansing was significant as a way of cleansing the community of the blood of innocent victims killed by the ritualist.

?We mourn them and pray Almighty God to have mercy on their souls.We also pray to God to cleanse our land from any defilement by Obieze and others,? Fr Okofia prayed.

Narrating the true picture of the incident, the Chief Security Officer of the community, Mr John Okeke, said he was inside the forest beside Obieze?s house checking his firewood.

According to him, at about 7pm he saw a motorcycle with two men and a little girl in their middle.

?I hid and began to watch the motorcycle and I suspected that they might be kidnappers; so, I quickly went to the community and informed some people of what I saw.

?We went to Obieze?s house to inform him what we saw beside his compound but he said it could not be true,? he said.

Okeke said he insisted that there was kidnapping at the back of his house.

?At that juncture, he offered me N10 million to close my mouth but I refused.

?I went to inform others and as we started beating one of his boys, we heard someone crying and we moved towards the direction and it was this little girl tied inside a pit,? CSO said.

The girl?s father, Mr Peter Okonkwo, thanked God for giving his daughter a second chance to live, and commended the Enugu State government for rehabilitating and offering scholarship to her.

The highlights of the event was rewarding of Okeke, the CSO with a brand new phone by the Aneke Foundation. (NAN)

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