The allure of power : Emefiele, Malami, Al-Mustapha and lessons from Odozi Obodo Society

By Richard Akinnola

Let me preface this by saying that every accused person is innocent until found guilty by the court. With that caveat, l hold that former CBN Governor, Emefiele, currently undergoing various trials for corruption and former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, currently in EFCC custody are innocent until they are pronounced guilty by the court.
However, the lesson we can draw from the predicaments of the duo is that power doesn’t last forever.

Emefiele was one of the most powerful CBN Governors, to the extent that he even had the audacity to attempt to contest for the presidency of the country as a sitting CBN Governor. Today, when you see him in court, he looks like a village farmer. Many of those fawning around him and promoting him as the next president, have abandoned him.

Malami, under the Buhari presidency was arguably one of the most powerful power brokers within the inner circle of the president. He also became very rich, according to the EFCC, within that period. Malami’s word was the law. He literally had the EFCC under his table. Today, he is holed up in an EFCC cell, awaiting trial, fighting for his liberty.

Have we forgotten Major Al-Mustapha, the powerful Chief Security Officer to Head of State, General Sani Abacha? Even Generals genuflected before him. The fear of Mustapha was the beginning wisdom. After the death of Abacha, Mustapha spent 14 years in Kirikiri prison -a whole de facto Head of state under Abacha. Would all these be sufficient examples for some of those currently in power, driving us out of the road with sirens as if there is no tomorrow? If they won’t learn from Emefiele, Malami and Al-Mustapha, at least, let them learn from the case of Odozi Obodo, that happened six decades ago.

It was like re-enactment of a typical was-time situation where loved ones went to the war front without coming back home. Between 1954 and 1957, tens of sons and daughters of Isieke, in Abakaliki area (now in Ebonyi State), left their homes for markets or farms without coming back. They just disappeared… Killed. At the last count in Novermber 1957, over 100 people had been butchered.

Unlike various murders which were shrouded in mystery, the inhabitants of Isieke and other adjourning clans knew the brain behind the killings. But like the mythical apollyon, the name of the brain behind these multiple murders was called in hushed tones by the inhabitants of Isieke. No one had the guts to complain. A man dared the devil by complaining and he paid with his life, his burnt body reduced to charred carcasses like a barbecued chicken.
Chief Nwibiko Obodo was a farmer who settled at Odonoke in Idoma area of Middle Belt in the early 50s. He was very tough and dictatorial, a behavioural disposition that propelled the people of Idoma to rebel against him, cutting off one of his ears in the process.

The humiliated Chief fled the area and settled at Isieke, putting on a genteel façade, courted the people, and paid their taxes to the native authority. The people wormed up to him. But soon, he unmasked himself, taxed the people twice the amount he paid on their behalf to the native authority. In default, Chief Obodo would seize the property of the people.
It was then it dawned on the people of Isieke that the “Humanitarian
Association” that Chief Obodo formed to pay their taxes, was in fact a
cover for a secret society known as Odozi Obodo Secret Society. `

When the masquerade was unmasked, Chief Obodo went about his dastardly acts with impunity. He became a terror in the whole area, a dictator that went about his bestial acts with clinical efficiency.

One of the shrines in his house which made people to obey him and relate with him with trepidation had the inscription. “All men and women of Isieke, Igbeagu, Amachi, Enyimagu, Ezangbo, Mgbo, Ezza, Ntezi, Ezillo, Enugu and Abakaliki to respect me and agree with whatever I say.”
By means of threat and intimidation, Chief Obodo soon acquired 33 wives, and 55 cows.
At the apogee of his megalomaniac state, he once boasted “The sky first, the earth second and I third.”
Chief Obodo had his brothers-in-crime. He had a deputy, Nwegede Ogbo who had a burial ground behind his house where the dismembered bodies of their victims were interred.
But despite his dastardly behaviour, Chief Obodo all the same gave the impression that he was a lover of law, at least at his warped, primordial perspective. He still found it expedient to conduct a ‘trial’ of his captives before ordering Nwegede Ogbo, his second-in-command to execute them.

As complaints and reports about Chief Obodo’s activities peaked, particularly with his murder of one of his wives, Nwagbo, police decided to put a tab on him. The Enugu police Region Headquarters sought the assistance of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Lagos. Two police detectives, disguising as native doctors worked for him and they managed to enjoy his trust and confidence.
Having got sufficient evidence to nail him, the disguised police detectives escaped and the police then charged the Chief to an Abakaliki Magistrate Court on a charge of stealing a cow.
The ploy was to get the Chief to a neutral ground where he could be arrested to face proper charge.

A confident and arrogant Chief Obodo appeared at the Chief Magistrate Court on May 23, 1958. As soon as the case was called, the prosecution sought for an adjournment on the ground that there were other serious charges against Chief Obodo. The adjournment plea was granted and as the confident Chief Obodo made for his Chevrolet car, the only one in that area at that time, armed policemen put him under arrest and drove him off. The destination of the police convoy was Chief Obodo’s house which, after a thorough search, blood stained swords, matchets, brass rods and various charms were found.

An apparently confident and defiant Chief Obodo told his household: “I am going to face a human being as judge not devil. I will eventually return to join you all.”
Eventually in May 1958, Chief Obodo and six members of his Secret Society responsible for the various murders were brought before an Abakaliki Magistrate Court. The court was to conduct preliminary inquiry into the murder of Chief Obodo’s wife.
After 120 days of hearing, the magistrate court sent the case to Abakaliki special Assizes for the trial of Chief Obodo and four of his aides.

Hearing commenced at the Assizes on August 12,1958. Charged along with Chief Obodo were Nwegede Ogbo (the second –in-command), Mbeke Awan, Nwagbala Nwankwo and Nwabuny Mgbabo.
One of the prosecution witnesses, Agoto Nwode, a farmer, narrated how Chief Obodo killed his (Obodo’s) wife, Nwamgbo Igbagu, with an iron rod. He told the Assizes that Obodo forced him to carry the dead body of the woman for burial under threat to kill him if he refused.

His testimony: “We then carried the body and at the place of burial, the Chief instructed us to remove the two Ivory bangles which the woman was wearing on both hands. We were unable to do this and the Chief himself used a piece of wood to smack the bangles to pieces.”
When asked under cross-examination by defence counsel, Chuba Ikpeazu (later a judge) why he did not report the incident to the police, Aguta retorted that he did not report because he was afraid of reprisals from Chief Obodo, adding that nobody in the whole area had the guts to disobey the chief.

Ikeagu Obajei, another prosecution witness and a brother of the deceased Nwamgbo said in his evidence that he once went to Chief Obodo’s house to look for his sister and the Chief Obodo “ordered me not to ask the question again or else he would make me run out of the house for dear life.”

When it was his turn to mount the witness box, Chief Obodo testified that the charms recovered in his house made people in the clan and surrounding villages to be scared of him and obey his orders. Denying that he killed his wife, Chief Obodo said he was not in a position to say whether his wife was dead or alive, adding that she packed out of his house long time before the trial. The other accused persons alleged that they never participated in the killings but only carried out orders to bury victims, stating that they would be killed by the Chief if they declined.

The Assizes in its judgment on August 18, 1958, said the prosecution had proved its case against the accused persons and therefore sentenced them to death.
Dissatisfied with the court’s judgment, the five condemned men went to the Federal Supreme Court (as the present Supreme Court was then known). It was the case of Nwiboko Obodo and four others v. The Queen.
On November 18, 1958, the Supreme Court panel of Justices made up of then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, Justice Abbott and and Justice Brett, refused an application for leave to appeal made by the condemned men. At the hearing of the application at the Supreme court, the condemned men were not represented by counsel but the prosecution was led by the then acting Director of Public Prosecutions,, Mr. W.O. Egbuna, who appeared with then Crown Counsel, Mr. Roland Okagbue (now deceased. He was a retired judge before he died).

Dismissing the appeal, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the lower court. It also said the four other convicts were privy to the murders.

“If a person joins a society of which one of the objects is murder and is present and acquiescent when a murder is carried out in pursuance of the objects of the society, it is no defence to say that he did not commit the murder with his own hands, or even that he refused a command to do so, unless the circumstance of refusal were such as to indicate a complete and final repudiation of the society, which none of the present applicants could claim to have made. Even it is true that some of them only joined the society and were present at the murder because they were threatened with death if they refused, Section 32 of the criminal code makes it clear that this is no defence in law to a charge of murder”, said the Supreme Court.
With that, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences on all the condemned men.
Despite the Supreme court’s confirmation of the death sentences, many people, particularly from the Isieke area still believed that Chief Obodo and members of the society could not be hanged. They believed so much in the potency of his charms, that he would disappear on the day of execution.

The government then decided to invite the Chief of the area to Enugu prison on February 24, 1959 to witness the hanging.
Shortly before he paid the supreme price at exactly 8:00a.m. that day, the defiant Chief Obodo still threatened: “If I see Nwangbo yonder, I’ll kill her.”
Thereafter, all the five men were hanged at Enugu prison, thus ending a period of nightmare for the people of Isieke. Their execution also led to further investigation into the atrocities of the Odozi Obodo cult, which led to the prosecution of over 100 people, 59 of whom were condemned to death.