That ritualist husband in Abia • Igbo Archives

THE story is as bizarre as it is distressing: an aluminium worker, identified as Lawrence Uzor, attacked his wife and gouged out her eyes allegedly for ritual purposes in Abia State. The incident was reported to have happened at Adiele Estate in Umueze Ibeku in Umuahia North Local Government Area of the state on the night of Saturday, August 24. The suspect, a native of Umuchieze in Bende Local Government Area of the state, used a knife to execute the dastardly act while the victim was in bed, sound asleep. Indeed, the suspect also reportedly attacked his landlady, one Madam Lovejane Nwaiwu, as she attempted to save the victim after hearing her shrill cries. He reportedly knocked off some of her teeth and cut off her upper lip!

Hear the distraught landlady, who was also admitted at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia: At about 10 pm on Saturday, I heard the man shouting Odogwu, Odogwu (mighty, mighty). I was worried as I had not heard the man and his wife, Amarachi Lawrence, praying like that. I started praying for them. After that, I couldnt sleep up to about 12 am and was restless. At about 1 am, the wife, who is a teacher working in one of the foremost private schools in Umuahia and is aged 38, started shouting, Mummy, I have been killed!. I opened my door, came out, peeped through their bedroom window, and saw the man pressed down on the wife with a knife in his hands. I started banging peoples gates and calling out to Umueze people, but nobody came out or responded. After my attempts to call neighbours to come and nobody answered me, I went to their parlour door and started knocking on the door and suddenly, he opened the door while holding the knife and tried giving me cuts on the head but I defended my head with my hand and he cut me on the hand and further plunged the knife in my face, which incidentally cut me in the mouth and many of my upper teeth came out. I ran into my house and locked the door, while he ran outside, locked our gate, and went to a neighbours house to tell them that he had killed his wife and his landlords wife. While inside my room, I called my mother and my daughter, who then called a church neighbour and the community vigilance team who rushed to the neighbours house and apprehended him.

Reacting to the incident, the wife of the governor of Abia State, Mrs Priscilla Otti, said she was deeply saddened by the case, which came up just a few days after the signing of a compact agreement with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on gender-based violence. Mrs Otti, who spoke at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, where the victims are being treated, said she would take immediate action to ensure proper protection of the victim. This is a terrible case of attempted murder, she said. Speaking earlier, the FMCs Director, Medical Services, Mrs Aisha Onyemaobi, explained to Mrs Otti that reports indicated that the victim was deeply asleep when her husband woke her up and started cutting her with a knife. She said: There was an attempt to gouge out her eyes and she suffered genital mutilation. According to the chairman of Umueze Ibeku community and General Manager, Tutus Jonah, a young man in the village had taken the suspect to a prayer house, after which he came back following a visit to a local stream with kolanuts, eggs and other items, and that the owner of the prayer house had been arrested. The victims sister, Ijeoma Okpokiri, and her cousin, Chioma Okpokiri, both from Emede Ibeku, pleaded with the Inspector-General of Police and the Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti, to look into the matter and to also assist in their sisters recovery efforts.

Time and again, we have deplored the devious trade in human parts called money ritual. As we have said repeatedly, no money ritualist is on the Forbes rich list. For instance, the Tesla founder, Elon Musk, was recently projected to be the worlds first trillionaire by 2027. Musks businesses are public knowledge, as are those of Aliko Dangote, the business mogul who is regarded as Africas wealthiest individual. Dangote deals in sugar, flour, cement and crude oil products, among others, and he would be nobody without these businesses. Apparently, he is not a ritualist, as those engaged in occult manipulations for money making are called in this clime. Increasingly these days, perhaps taking a cue from popular culture, certain members of the Nigerian society, including teenagers who are just starting out on this journey called life, are engaged in money ritual, visiting the most horrendous forms of violence on their hapless victims. Countless numbers of souls have been dispatched prematurely to the great beyond, beheaded or mutilated in dastardly fashion as their killers harvested their body parts to satisfy the cravings of pecuniary gods.

Just how can a man remove his wifes eyes with a knife for money ritual? With whom does he hope to enjoy money, in the unlikely event that it even comes? How could a woman resting in her own home, taking the love and devotion of her own husband for granted, be treated in such a shameful manner? Is there any love and affection in this relationship? Now that the suspect has made his wife a physically challenged person, has he come into money? Are his companies now listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange? And if the suspect could gouge out his own wifes eyes, what would he not do to another persons wife if he had the opportunity? It is saddening that the more you rail against money ritual, the more it seems to spread in the Nigerian society as people celebrate wealthy people without asking any questions about the source(s) of their wealth. The solution, then, at least in the interim, is to ensure diligent prosecution of suspects while heightening advocacy and enlightenment campaigns on the pernicious practice of money ritualism.

In the instant case, we urge the Abia State government to do all it can to ensure that the victim gets back on her feet, however hard that turns out to be. It should also help out the Good Samaritan landlady, without whose intervention this story could have taken a more sinister turn. Needless to say, the suspect should be treated in strict accordance with the laws of the land. No two ways about it.