APC...A Party Of Head Hunters?
Evil Forest discovered in Ibadan, capital of Oyo state, southwest Nigeria!...screamed newspaper headlines. Another evil forest discovered by the Nigeria Police in Pakoto/ Ewekoro, Ogun state, southwest Nigeria... as reported by all news media!
A person was caught with a human head at Joju area of Sango-Otta, Ogun state, southwest Nigeria!
Much like the former two instances which attracted TV stations from far and near as they beamed camera lights on severed human parts with clothes and shoes of victims strewn all over, the latter case was no better!
Though onlookers were not visibly covering their noses with handkerchiefs as in the former cases, the verbal rendition of the lady peddler of human heads in the Sango-Otta instance was as chilling as it was blood-cuddlng!
She flippantly stated that she added human heads to her stock because "it was in high demand by customers"!
Apart from the Okija case, the only "evidence" which seems to support human sacrifice....to my knowledge...in Iboland are several Nollywood movies scripted, acted, produced and directed by Igbomen. I suppose they wouldn't so imply that human sacrifice still occurs in their land if it doesn't!
But we would leave that for another day...as I merely mentioned it for the sakes of balance! As what more readily arrests the attention are the many instances of such in Yorubaland!
So, apart from the "evil forest" of Okija of yore where scores of human heads and other body parts were found about a decade ago, nearly all...if not all...instances of unearthed bases of headhunters in recent times are situated in Yoruba states of southwest Nigeria, where the All Peoples' Congress (APC) is the ruling party! Thus, the preponderance of human rituals leans more on the side of Yorubaland...
In recent days, I have had cause to write about the blunt refusal of the Aregbesola government of Osun state to make an official announcement of the death of Oba Okunade Sijuade, the Ooni of Ife, also in southwest Nigeria...where the APC is yet again the ruling party! I have simply asked that government to either confirm or honestly deny this death...
Now, the rapidity of repetition of these cases cannot, by any modicum of rationality, be waved aside as mere coincidence!
This state of affairs...juxtaposed with the fact that the APC is also the ruling party of the Federal Government of Nigeria...raises but only one question...
Why does the APC appear to have such tacit support for ritual murders?
Up till the time of drafting this article, neither the APC government of Osun state nor the APC government of the federal republic of Nigeria has officially confirmed or honestly denied the death of this monarch!
Given that the general apprehension of the citizenry is predicated on the suspicion that official announcements of such deaths are delayed until enough human heads are gathered to bury with the king, this official silence speaks volumes!
Nigerians are anxious that this loud silence or futile denial...while ritualistic curfews are declared...and rites of passage are performed...while the Ooni's corpse is secretly flown home....is to make Nigerians lower their guards so they easily fall victims of headhunters!
Most Nigerians including this author, might not have actually seen the process of beheading of humans. But the cascade of questionable actions...and inactions...of government on this issue, its body language and the royal funeral-related activities cited above aptly qualify at least as circumstancial evidence for the retention of the practice of burying dead Yoruba monarchs with severed human heads!
Is the APC government of Nigeria and the APC government of Osun state in implicit collusion with the ritualists of Ile-Ife to facilitate wholesale beheading of Nigerians?
Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.
Dr Tosin Akindele