The year 2016 started on a dreadful note for the town of Ubulu-Ukwu, Aniocha-North LGA of Delta State. It was just fifth day of the year that was still fresh and unfolding and with abundant hopes for the new year, when tragedy struck the town. 

What did happen? Well, as the Vanguard newspaper of January 24, 2016 put it: “UBULU-UKU – despicable, abominable, horrible, detestable, repugnant, name it. But words are not enough to express the act that has caused agony for the people of Ubulu-Uku Kingdom in Aniocha South Local Government Area of the State. 

Their monarch, HRM Akaeze Edward Ofulue III, abducted 19 days ago at about 4.00 pm, on January 5, 2016, by suspected Fulani herdsmen, was discovered stone dead 15 days after the creepy incident. 

In Ubulu-Uku and other kingdoms, it is a taboo to kidnap a king, not to talk of killing him. Vigilante group members found his decomposing remains at the stomp of a tree in the bush at Umunede, Ika North East local government area, the boundary between Delta and Edo States. 

Ofulue III, a lawyer, businessperson and an ardent Christian of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry was driving with a young pastor of the church, who also served as one of his aides in his Land Cruiser Jeep, along the notorious Obior/ Igbodo Road when the abductors struck at a disgracefully bad spot. The bad spot, about 40 kilometers from his country home, has been a flash-point in recent times – many persons, including two Catholic Priests were kidnapped at the spot by suspected Fulani herdsmen, who more often than not lay siege there. 

A vigilante group member, who pleaded anonymity, said they discovered two decomposing corpses in the bush but were able to identify the monarch “because of his beads and apparel,” adding, “The king’s corpse was found resting at the bottom of a palm tree.” The source, who was cornered by our correspondent in the community, said; “We could not identify the second body but the fellow had Hausa shoes on. This is a very challenging period for us in this kingdom. I was one of those who went in search of the king.” 

That was in 2016! And even as you are reading this sorry story in the month of October 2020, nothing beyond what the Vanguard published in the wake of the discovery of the lifeless body of the monarch in the bush, has been added to the deposit of public knowledge. Put differently, it means that for years, the sordid murder of a king, that murder most foul, that unconscionable act that should scandalise the people of any nation that takes itself serious as a nation under the rule of the law, has not only been solved, there is nothing to show that the Police is seriously striving to solve it. 

Yet, it is a fact of life that not too long after that abduction and murder of the Obi, the Police paraded some persons suspected of having committed that heinous crime. Even now, anyone could download or watch video, titled “Police Parade Killers of Obi Of Ubulu-Uku Kingdom and Others” showing the suspected criminals. The narrator in that video said clearly and I quote: “while parading the suspects, the Force Public Relations Officer says that one of the victims who was kidnapped with the late monarch in January this year, but later escaped (from the kidnappers) identified one Umaru Mohammed, also known as Small, as the leader of the kidnapping gang. His arrest by the Special Anti-Kidnapping operatives in Delta state, led to the apprehension of some suspected gang members while others are still at large”. A policeman, DCP, Don Anwuna could be seen addressing the journalists and assuring Nigerians of the preparedness of the Nigeria Police to deal with kidnappers. Salihi Abdulahi of NTA News was the narrator, so there is little doubt that the video clip came from the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority, and so, is authentic. 

Yet, four long years down the line, the murder has not been solved. The killers of that king have not been punished. Justice has not yet been done by a Nigeria that should have swiftly punished any murderer. 

The tears that have formed furrows in the face of the immediate family of the late king’s immediate family, his wife and children, his extended family and in the faces of Ubulu-Ukwu people everywhere have not been made to dry up – simply because those who abducted and slayed the amiable king, a man with a winsome smile, an easy going king, in whose face a smile usually played, and whose consuming ambition was just to see peace and progress blanket everywhere in the town. That smile was snuffed out devilishly. 

Four years down the line, a message has not been sent to the marauding killer herdsmen that they should exit their murderous career of mayhem. Instead, they have often turned Ubulu-Ukwu and environs into fertile ground in which to sow seeds of havoc and senseless killings. Since that time, as though daring, no mocking the Nigeria Police, they have been kidnapping hapless individuals on the roads that lead into and out of Ubulu-Ukwu. They have also been abducting people from their farms, on the way to church, etc. 

In fact the entire Anioma area of Delta state appears to have become a hunting ground for kidnaping and killer suspected herdsmen. 

The late monarch, HRM Obi Ofulue II, had been on the throne for just ten years when the suspected killer herdsmen took away his life. 

Was his death a set-up? Or was it a dastardly act by hoodlums out for quick money through ransom payment? Nobody would know until a real court trial has unearthed the real motives of those that carried it out. Some have said unknown persons suspected to be the Fulani herdsmen called the king, claiming that they saw his beads and money and that he should come to collect them. They told him to drive to the notorious road and the king not knowing that it was a set-up, set out to meet with them. His fleeing houseboy linked up with the herdsmen, who talked him into arranging the monarch for ransom. 

That remains a speculation, perhaps wild, perhaps well-informed, until the man who was abducted with him but who escaped, could say all he knows. 

However, while a version said only he and the pastor were in the car, another said they were three, including his driver. 

As the Vanguard reported then, “At the bad spot, the herdsmen, who laid ambush, came out shooting sporadically. It was obvious they were old in the game, as they led him into the bush immediately leaving his SUV on the roadside”. 

Unfortunately, that same bad spot between Obior and Igbodo villages, are still bad spots four years later. But the bad spots have actually increased to the extent that one could say that the entire Anioma area has become a vast single bad spot. And the hardworking Governor of Delta State, who successfully ensured that peace reigned in Ubulu-Ukwu after the death of Obi Ofulue III by giving the staff of office to his son, the youngish Obi Ofulue III, offered him a scholarship to do his undergraduate studies in Law, will be watching his efforts to transform the state being frustrated as farmers are now afraid to tend their farms for fear of kidnappers and rapists. And my people are agrarian. To stop them from farming is to cut off their livelihood. 

The Obi’s death devastated Delta’s Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. According to a newspaper report: “The governor who became dumbfounded upon hearing the news of the death of the monarch, said, Friday evening, that his death had opened a sacrilegious chapter in the history of the state and vowed that the state, under his watch, would ensure that his abduction and subsequent death would be thoroughly investigated”. 

Four years down the It would be most uncharitable not to grant that a terrible disaster hit the town with the death of His Royal Highness Obi Edward Akaezi Ofulue 111. It was as unexpected as it was tragic. It unsettled everyone and everything. The town has yet to recover. About a decade and a half ago, when Ubulu-Uku mourned the Obi Ofulue 11, memorial textile prints that bore his much-loved burst were distributed and bought by the Ubulu-Uku people even in far-flung areas of the country and beyond because that was actually a celebration of life. This time, the town was not involved in any celebration of life. It was dealing with the aftermath of a death most callous, most heartless, most inexplicable. 

The only good fallout so far is the peace that reigns in the town, after a seamless succession: The entire world just witnessed a seamless succession from father to first son as happened from Obi Ofulue 1 to Obi Ofulue 11 to Obi Ofulue 111 and now to His Royal Highness Obi Akaeze 1. Later this month the town would be celebrating the Iwu Festival. Life will of course return to normal, but it is most normal to ask the question: “Nigeria, please fish those that abducted and killed His Royal Majesty Edward Akaezi Ofulue, the Obi Ofulue 111. I know I am not asking for too much. Instead, I am asking for the most normal of things in any civilized society”. This suspected herdsmen’s scourge must stop; it has gone one for two long and has damaged the society. 

By Chika Otuchikere

Nigerians have for once, risen to the occasion against a cold-blooded and merciless establishment. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad SARS is a symbol of the brutality and insensitivity of successive governments against the Nigerian people. The last time Nigerians rose to defy a government or its institution under a civil rule was the wrongly intentioned uprising against former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s government. The people, in the likeness of the Roman publicans, and like swarming locusts, flooded the major streets of the nation’s capital demanding the ‘banishment of Jonathan from the Aso Rock seat of power and replacement with the messianic, ‘Incorruptible’ military General and former dictator, Muhammadu Buhari. Eventually but unfortunately, they succeeded in ousting Jonathan and installing Buhari, armed with all the promises the General’s handlers dished out to them in a mirage platter.

After Buhari was sworn-in and for over six months he did not find his voice to name his cabinet members and aides, the upbeat Nigerians who sacrificed Jonathan for him on the altar of falsehood and propaganda began to sense trouble. Even then, they did not realize the ‘one chance’ roller costal they just boarded. Before their very eyes, they began to see the All Progressives Congress (APC )government of President Buhari reincarnating all the atrocities for which they sent Jonathan to his political Golgotha. In the very first few months, the government hiked the pump price of fuel and electricity tariff in one fell swoop. Nigerians then were too tongue-tied to question why the astronomical hikes. Many of the government’s diehard supporters consoled themselves with the refrain “well, if the hikes will guarantee regular fuel supply and uninterrupted power supply so be it”. They did not reckon with the spiral effect of increasing the prices of those two major commodities. Suddenly, prices of every commodity in the market began an uphill climb.

Rather than the government seeking ways to arrest what many feared would become an economic catastrophe, Buhari resorted to looking back like the biblical Lot’s wife and turning the country potential into a Lifeless pillar of salt. He no longer remembered all the promises he made to Nigerians on the strength of which they railroaded him into power, but began to remember all the things that the previous government did and did not do and started blaming that government for the ills that were fast becoming the fate of Nigerians and the country. He had told Nigerians that he would end the era of medical tourism on assumption of office, but no sooner had he assumed office than he went off on a medical sabbatical to, God knows which country. Nigerians were beginning to fear for the whereabouts of their president when he suddenly remembered that he had a capsizing ship of state to navigate to safety. He returned to the country only to disappear again shortly after for another medical tourism. He also continued his buck passing because, of course, he did not know how to explain to the people that they could not invoke uninterrupted people supply within six months in office as promised.

The worst tragedy that befell the country was when the currency began a free fall landing the naira exchange rate to almost N1000 to a dollar at the black market. It was still blamed on the previous government. Meanwhile, life became extremely unbearable for so many Nigerians that many began to contemplate and do the unthinkable; many in Lagos began to jump into the lagoon of the third mainland bridge on suicide missions to end their misery. The naira disaster was followed shortly by an economic recession. Even after the government announced, months later, that the country had come out of the recession, the people continued into the higher degree of recession known as economic depression. That’s where the country is still at but a fitting name for the state the country is facing currently is “a failed state”. Not omitting that the mismanagement of the economy by the present administration which has earned Nigeria the ignoble position of the “Poverty Capital of the World” with the country having the largest number of persons living in extreme poverty than in any other country.

Needless to mention also that poor handling of the country’s security challenges has also labeled the country as one of the most dangerous places to reside in the world. The president obstinately refused to fire his service chiefs even after all the sectors and geopolitical regions of the country (his own north where majority of the service chief belong inclusive) have called on him to relieve them of their duties. As I write, just last week, while presenting the 2021 budget proposal, President Buhari announced that the country has sunk into another spell of recession. Few weeks before this announcement in which he said this recession will have greater adverse effect that the previous, the president hiked again, the electricity tariff by more than 100 per cent and fuel by nearly 50 per cent. Nigerians were determined to stage a ‘Mother of all protests but did not again after the spearhead of the protest, the Labour Unions backed down in a move many Nigerians described as turncoat. Without doubts the recession will unleash greater mayhem on the masses.

The present #EndSARS protest will not be complete if Nigerians end it at #endSARS. Nigerian can kill many birds with this one stone. We cannot continue to tolerate corrupt leaders who only get a pat on the back after they are caught; this protest should be extended to insist that all the security chiefs who have superintended over the wanton killing of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram, kidnappers, bandit etc must be shown the way out of office and the current visionless leadership which has reduced the country to a pariah state in a space of five years must be given an ultimatum to roll up its sleeves and work us out of this present quandary or throw in the towel. Then and only then will the #EndSARS protests have a happy ending.