It is recalled that the leadership of Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) had on 12^th, 14^th and 15^th of May 2017 issued parts one, two and three of its public statement, titled: the return of troublesome billionaires and killer-“generals” in Anambra State. The 15^th May 2017 segment of the statement was specifically and statistically targeted at exposing killer-“generals” and violent market leaders and their violent activities in the State so as to draw the attention of the general public and relevant security agencies against the allied security threats and the forthcoming governorship election in the State.

The said public statement of ours and its parts was chiefly brought about by: increasing activities of troublesome billionaires in the State who have also pocketed strategic conventional security formations in the State and at Enugu, Umuahia and Abuja; violent activities of some killer-“generals” and violent market leaders such as wanton demolition of citizens’ private houses and properties without recourse to due process and rule of law (i.e. Okpuno-Nkwelle-Ezunaka Estate property demolition); and 2017 Anambra governorship election war drums of the incumbent Government of Anambra State.

As the release of fourth part and concluding part of the statement is being perfected and awaited, we received sad and shocking news that “General” Kenneth Okonkwor, who is “Managing Director/Superintendent General” of Governor William Obiano’s “OCHA Brigade” or “Operation Clean & Healthy Anambra” has died. “OCHA Brigade” which “General” Kenneth Okonkwor headed before his reported sudden death is popularly called “Obiano militia or police”. “General” Kenneth Okonkwor was said to have died in a fatal automobile accident while driving /coming back from a function. A version has it that he died while returning from a Christian wake keep of one of his trader-friends while another said he died while returning from a pre-2017 Anambra governorship poll “security meeting” at Agulueri, the home of Governor William Maduabuchi Obiano of Anambra State.

The reported sudden death of “General” Kenneth Okonkwor is a lesson too many. As recently as early May 2017, he roared and boasted before the likes of Comrades Justus Uche Ijeoma of Int’l Human Rights & Equity Defense Foundation (I-HEF) and Aloysius Emeka Attah of the Civil Liberties Organization, Southeast Zone that he is above human destruction and untimely death. He also boasted that he had education, money, black power, connection, access to government and security establishments. As earliest as few days ago, “General” Kenneth Okonkwor was also reported to have openly boasted in a function that anybody that stands in the way of the present Government of Anambra State in the forthcoming governorship poll, no matter who he is or represents, will be crushed.

We had in the third segment of the said statement of ours dated 15^th May 2017 described killer-“generals” and violent market “leaders” in Anambra State, which “Gen” Kenneth Okonkwor belonged before his reported sudden demise as chief touts and lead-retreatists as well as militant traders and other inherently violent citizens recruited at market, communal, street and State levels for group, political and vigilante violence who got indoctrinated in the art of black powers and physical violence through guns, machetes and voodoo or criminal/killer charms.

It saddens our heart that the ways of our forefathers which were strictly laid in purity, self discipline or restraint, abstinence from social ills and taboos, truth telling and self contentment, protagonist self defense, reconciliation (resulting from truth and mercy, justice and peace in inter personal, intra and inter group disputes/conflicts); prestige and honour; science of innocuous traditional medicine etc have over the years suffered, blackened, darkened, demonized, cajoled, lampooned, misrepresented, misinterpreted, misused and misapplied.

These bastardisations have continued till date to the extent that the ways of our forefathers and their allied good ways of life are today categorised by Christian bodies such as fundamentalist Christian bodies and persons as evil, fetish or satanic; whereas in the real sense of it, there are more evils and Satanism or satanic ways of life today in Christian bodies and persons than in the years of our forefathers or Oracular Igbo Society.

In the words of the Very Reverend Father Dr Raymond Arazu in his Man Know Thyself book published in 2003: p. 16, there are four major types of (benevolent) Ndi Dibia or Oracle Priests in Oracular Igbo Land, namely: Ndi Dibia Afa( those who specialize in divination and soothsaying), Ndi Dibia Aja (those who specialize in performing various sacrifices associated with divinities or shrines), Ndi Dibia Ogwu (those specialize in diagnosing and treating diseases and disturbances with herbs, talisman, charms and rituals), and Ndi Dibia Oje N’ Mmuo (those who demystify mysteries of nature, perform miracles and communicate and intervene in good and frosty relationships between humans and supernatural, perfect spirits or benevolent ancestors).

That is to say that the ways of our forefathers being mocked and demonized today are thousands of miles away from evil doing. Igbo Oracular Society also acknowledged the existence and abominable roles of evil, evil people and evil doing, which was why there were Ndi Ajo Mmuo (evil and wicked spirits) and Ndi Ajo Mmadu (evil minds or wicked people). In the realm of Igbo medicinal or medical science in Oracular Igbo Society, there were also Ajo Ogwu or Ogwu Ojoo (evil or killer medicine); Ndi N’ Agwo Ogwu Ojoo (evil or Satanic medicine men); and Ogwu Aja (sacrificial medicine/black power), Ogwu Afa (medicine for divination and soothsaying), Ogwu Oria (curable or healing medicine), and Ogwu Oje N’ Mmuo (i.e. back to sender medicine or mysticism).

The foregoing analysis and clarifications are not only to debunk age long erroneous impressions chiefly masterminded by the British colonial masters and their earliest Christian missionaries or allies that Oracular Igbo’s ways of life or ways of our forefathers were totally evil, demonic and Satanic; same wrong impressions that are upheld till date by the present Christian bodies and persons.

The analysis and clarifications above are also geared towards letting the generality of Nigerian public know that Oracular Igbo Society lived with human rights and other purified or saintly ways of life. For instance, the use of human blood or parts for sacrifices or institution of deity or clan group masquerades in the Oracular Igbo Society were outlawed or tabooed in the mainstream Igbo Society under the spiritual and aristocratic influence and guidance of Nri Holy Kingdom. They were extensively imported into Oracular Igbo Land on account of several intertribal wars between Igbo warriors and Igbo neighbors such as the Igbo-Ibibio wars over Arochukwu in 1650s to 1690.

Therefore, the violent and malevolent voodooist activities of the likes of “General” Kenneth Okonkwor expressly represents malevolent and abominable lifestyles in Oracular Igbo Society and have nothing to do with the purified ways of our forefathers. Those who lived and died saintly and aristocratically in Oracular Igbo Society are today called perfect spirits or benevolent ancestors while their opposites are called Ndi Ajo Mmuo (wicked spirits or malevolent forefathers).

“General” Kenneth Okonkwor and his likes in the present Igbo Society expressly represent Ndi Ajo Ogwu and Ndi Aruru Ani (killer charms men or those that have desecrated the land/abomination perpetrators). This is on account of the fact that no true or illustrious son of Oracular Igbo descent will indulge in such abominable activities as “General” Kenneth Okonkwo had done, to the extent of embarking on willful and unjustifiable demolition of properties legitimately acquired by widows, retirees, pensioners, petty traders, palm wine tappers, subsistent farmers, etc; banking on criminal and killer charms, guns, machetes, government backing and access to the joint security operatives provided by Governor William Obiano as his basket-load of protection or Ndawu-Inyi (anti deity oath charms). As if that was not enough, he went for extortion and bribe collection spree, collecting and pocketing over N40M as bribery conditions for sparing others from having their dwelling houses and properties demolished.

We understand, from our ongoing research that a good number of Igbo citizens have headed back to the ways of our forefathers or Oracular Igbo Society; on account of their deep disappointment in the hands of leaders of Christian bodies, who appeared to have abandoned the true teachings and purest ways of life of Lord Jesus Christ and his apostleship and discipleship and enmeshed in pursuit of material wealth and building of paradise on earth as well as encouraging their parishioners and followers to go all out in pursuit of wealth including fraudulent wealth, money rituals and stealing of public funds.

It is extremely important to point out and caution those that have headed back or heading back to the ways of our forefathers or Oracular Igbo Society to first study carefully the true ways of our forefathers before embracing same in the spirit of right to freedom of worship. We say this because true ways of our forefathers had nothing to with promotion and institutionalisation of evil or evil doing as rampantly the order of the day in the present Igbo and Nigeria Societies.

Seeking for Satanic or killer black powers so as to “become humanly indestructible” or engaging in a legion of evil doing such as encroachment and possession of illegal properties and their destruction, stealing of public funds, raping of under age or married women, offering of human blood or parts as sacrifices, desecration and dethronement of communal traditional stools, willful acts of murder, fraud, telling of abominable lies, terrorization of communal neighbors and natives and larger society, etc, are in no way the ways of our forefathers.

We strongly advise other killer-“generals” and troublesome billionaires in Anambra State to learn a big lesson from the ordeal of “General” Kenneth Okonkwor and begin to make amends and change from their violent and reprehensible ways of life. We are not worried about the reported sudden death of “General” Kenneth Okonkwor because death is the end of every mortal journey which is mandatorily attached in the life of every human citizen, but our deep worries are what types of lifestyle that citizens put in place in the course of their living on earth.

•Text of a statement issued on Friday morning in Onitsha by the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety). It was signed by Board Chairman Emeka Umeagbalasi. Intersociety can be reached via +2348174090052 or info@intersociety-ng.org

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