Today in history (2002), Barnabas Igwe, chairman of Nigeria Bar Association Onitsha Branch, Anambra State, and his pregnant wife were brutally murdered by a group of armed men as they returned from an evening outing.
Today in history (1966), Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigerian Head of State and Lt. Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, first military governor of the former Western Region, Nigeria were murdered by a group of mutinous Northern army soldiers.
On May 25, 2022, his wife, Nancy Crampton-Brophy, the author of several self-published novels including ‘The Wrong Husband’ and ‘How To Murder Your Husband’ was found guilty of fatally shooting her husband.
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot point-blank and killed by Faisal bin Musaid, son of his half-brother.
The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as sixty noblemen, including Caesar’s own protege, Marcus Brutus.
Ogunniyi was the chief of Ifon for years before his death, his grandfather was a pioneer of Christianity in the village. The imprints of this religion made him a very Orthodox Christian. He ruled over a court and a large family. He settled disputes among the sons of the soil with an impartial mind, but he had nothing to do with Muslims and heathens. He shunned every activity that could make him fraternize with them. The eerie fire he carried in his heart towards them was very cryptic to his kinsmen and his fellow pious converts. Even in his court, no one dared to say anything profane about his religion. And with the skill of an alchemist turning steel to gold, he infected the hearts of his children. Like the tide flowing from the sea and ebbing back into it, Ogunniyi’s fire flowed into his son. As the strength of his youth, he built a source of illumination in him to guide his path through life. The fire he thought would illuminate his path and fight off the waxy fingers of darkness from his son. He believed his son would embrace his illumination and detest the darkness, the herald of the abyss, the abyss of the outer world of Muslims and heathens. Since life speaks in vague languages and signs, archaic and arcane signs that only the conscious could decipher. These conscious minds stoic and simple are the ones who could understand that in the universe of a babel of minds, accepting others is the true definition of a man with sapience strong enough to walk through life; even as a pious being. Growing up Alade was astonished at his father’s misanthropical lifestyle towards Muslims and heathens in his jurisdiction. His hands were always outstretched towards the needy but not to non-believers but he was too illuminated to see the pitch darkness at the end of the path he was threading, he was choked by his father’s stewardship of illumination, the illumination he had begun to have a lust for. He was lost to his father’s enigma. But in the middle of spiralling towards the fountain springing with fulgent fire that flowed from the estuary of his father’s blind hate, he fell into a moment of reminisce. He began to see that the path that he thought was leading to the treasury of illuminated sapience was a fjord he would fall from into a gulf of pain and inhumane lifestyle if does not disembark. Ogunniyi was too blind with his stewardship to notice that his son wasn’t illuminated but was burnt like the Phoenix and returned a different being. Many years after Ogunniyi’s death, his son took the rein of the rulership of the kingdom and he treated everyone as equal because having hateful sapience about others is not a source of power for leadership. Oladejo Victor Olayemi a budding artist from Ore. He wrote in via ezekieloladejo375@gmail.com
A few days ago I had asked why the protesting Reverend Fathers in Enugu failed to do the same when some Catholic faithfuls were massacred in Ozubulu. The post expectedly drew the ire of many hypocrites including some cowards who hitherto dare not address me directly. But of course, we all know I don’t suffer fools gladly neither do I take prisoners. So I told them to shove their silly opinions up where there is no sunshine. Last week Reverend Fr. Offu was murdered in Awgu. The outrage was hysterical given that just 5 months ago another Catholic priest was brutally murdered in the same Enugu state. Our Reverend fathers have had enough and quite rightly mounted a public protest calling on the authorities to protect them. No sensible person will query the propriety of that protest. However, they made a mistake or should I say a deliberate mistake in blaming the ‘murderous Fulani herdsmen’ for a crime still under investigation. The Communications Director Catholic Diocese of Enugu Rev Fr. Achi told reporters that Fr. Offu was stopped by the murderous herdsmen while returning to his parish after visiting another priest. He specifically said: “They dragged him to the bush but one of the assailants said kill him that the church would not do anything if they kidnapped him” Don’t ask me if he was there. These are men of God blessed with extraordinary abilities. Now let me rejig your memory. Last March when Fr. Ugwu was abducted and his decomposing body later found in a bush. There was also this type of outrage and the heinous act blamed on ‘Fulani herdsmen’ even before the police commenced investigations. Who else would kidnap and murder a clergyman in cold blood if not the usual suspects? As it were, the security operatives swung into action and by April the Enugu state police command announced that they had apprehended two leaders of a four-man kidnapping gang. They had used the late priest’s ATM card to make withdrawals from his account. Their names: Sunday Chibuko 32 and Benjamin Osogwu 28. Igbo herdsmen perhaps. Well, the police have once again made some arrests on the latest case and the word out there is that the late Fr. Offu’s account was cleared 25 minutes after his death. Do you see a pattern? A bank insider said that “there was a need for the security operatives to look inward and ascertain who actually made the ATM withdrawals….” There is a pattern here. Have you wondered why it is mostly Catholic priests? Apparently, these are inside jobs to loot the church treasury because unlike their Anglican colleagues Catholic Reverend Fathers are in complete control of the usually healthy parish coffers. Its a piece of cake for dumb criminals. Kill and clean out the account while the people scream help you to distract the police by screaming ‘fulani herdsmen’. You then have adequate time to get far away. The killers of Fr. Ugwu nabbed in April were arrested in Abuja where they had relocated with their families. You see when we say things as they are we are labelled all sorts by people too cowardly to speak their minds. The person who ‘nicodemusly’ sent me this news is a chronic ‘Islamisation propagandist’ who knows the truth but will rather dance to the gallery of ‘Fulanisation’ on social media for fear of being labelled anti-Igbo or an efulefu. Nobody is defending the govt’s struggle with the rising insecurity neither am I saying there are no criminal herdsmen. However as an Igbo man conscious of the evil Igbo domination propaganda that ultimately ended in a bloody civil war I ALWAYS feel obliged to speak on the dangers of the current ‘Fulanisation’ fallacy and hate-mongering. I have always wondered the usefulness of such silly talk. How will it dethrone Buhari or curb the rising insecurity? We need to be careful with the sentiments we propagate. Let us join hands in holding the government accountable while insisting on improved security. And the least we can do in this regard is to put the correct facts out there because not only do the unverified stories pit Nigerians against each other they also make solving the crime more difficult for our security agencies. All lives matter and the killing of priests should not be relegated to infantile political propaganda.
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