How I Was Taken To Okija Shrine In The Midnight—Ngige

How I Was Taken To Okija Shrine In The Midnight—Ngige

Former governor of Anambra State and later, Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige, has shared on how he was, one day, bundled to the feared Okija Shrine even as sitting governor.

Here are the excerpts:

When people talk about Okija shrine, they always mention your name, why is it so, what is your involvement with Okija shrine?

I was taken to Okija shrine by force. By midnight, I didn’t know where we were going, and it was a few days to my election. So they said we must go there to swear an oath of loyalty.

Of course, I know that those shrines and those small deities don’t work. God Almighty is above all of them. So I went with my Bible and holy water. When we got there and I looked at what they were doing, one of them now opted to go and swear for me.

I said, fine and he did. But when I became governor and the security report showed what they were doing there, swindling people, I don’t know how it happened, but the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo gave instruction to my CP through the IGP, that the place should be dismantled.

The CP called me and we went and leveled the place. So, that particular shrine is no longer there. But there are so many little shrines in Okija. It’s now that people have forsaken those things, having noted that it was being operated by a swindling gang.

There were many people who came to my aid. The first person was my driver from my hometown who was driving my private vehicle when they seized my official car. I went with my private 406 car.

By some intuition, I told my private driver to come with us in the convoy. So, on that day, when they had seized the other car, rolled up the flag and closed the crest, I entered my private car and detailed one DSP, the one who was standing on the door with an AK47 to also accompany me in that car.

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He was inside the car, and we were on our way to Alor, my hometown. He said they had instructions to take me to my village.

So, when I came to a place called quarter, I spoke to my driver in Igbo, because, fortunately, that man wasn’t Igbo, and he detoured to my hotel.

How I Was Taken To Okija Shrine In The Midnight—Ngige2

When we got to the hotel, he said this is not part of the instruction, and I said, yes, but if you’re taking me to my village, I have to get my luggage and my clothes and they’re here. So after a long argument, they allowed me.

I came down and when I got to the area where you have a staircase to go up to my room on the third floor, one of them decided to follow me and I said no, it’s my PA that should follow me.

Ngige: A bitter ordeal even as siting governor

But they said no, that I should be with two of them now instead of even one person. I smelt a rat and I said I was not going anywhere anymore. So I carried one plastic chair, put it in the courtyard and sat down there.

So they started radioing their AIG that the man was in the hotel and had refused to go to any other place. So, he blamed them for even detouring and sent some senior officers.

By that time, my elder sister had arrived, my Chief Press Secretary, the media man, Fred Chukwulobe had also arrived.

So they came to the iron barricade and spoke to me about whether they should put it on the Anambra radio about what was happening and I said yes.

So they went and blasted it on the radio there that I was still alive. Then one traditional ruler, Igwe Anugwu, who was my friend in the Alex Ekwueme Campaign Organization ALEKCO, and was our treasurer but belonged to APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance), saw me there and passed me two times and on the third time he saw that there was trouble, when he saw policemen encircling the entire courtyard.

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He spoke to me from the burglary proof that was used in fencing round the courtyard and I said, yes, that these people said I was no longer governor and that they had seized my office, seized my car and I was here.

Before I went into that courtyard, we had a fistfight because one of the policemen pushed me and I gave him a heavy knock.

I told him I was a black belt holder, that I would kill him if he made any attempt again, so he ran away.

So, I went to the courtyard and they didn’t come to attack me physically again because they saw what happened to the other one because I hit him very hard and when I hit him, he knocked his head on the wall and he ran away.

He dropped his gun and ran away and the other people now rescued him, so they left me. The traditional ruler then said he would call Dr. Alex Ekwueme to tell him.

He called Ekwueme, and I spoke with Ekwueme. He said, ‘Igbo leader,’ which is what he calls me. ‘What’s happening?’ They said some policemen arrested you, I said yes. He said, arrest a governor with immunity?

I said, well, they said I was no longer the governor. He said okay, so the man came back and asked if there was any other person I wanted to speak with.

I said yes, I would like to speak to someone in my party. So I gave him the number of a land line which he dialed.

The land phone belonged to Prince Vincent Ogbulafor’s office, but then Vincent was the secretary.

We had worked from that office when Nwodo was the secretary, because I was the assistant national secretary. The number was in my head. So, the person who picked up the phone was Vin Ogbulafor himself, and he said, hello, who is that? I said, it’s me.

He said, you are who? I said Dr. Ngige. Of course, he didn’t believe me that it was Ngige. He said look, my friend stop playing here, we are not playing, we are looking for our governor, our party’s governor, we are looking for him and you are presenting yourself as him. I said no, it’s Ngige. I then called him Vinoo because that’s the pet name I call him, Vinoo, prince of the Niger. He said, eweeh, he spoke in Igbo and said ‘owu gi’ (is it you?).

So, that was what happened and from him the phone was passed to Dikibbo who spoke to me and said, are you still alive? I said yes.

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Then the phone was passed to another NWC (National Working Committee) member, Bode George. I spoke with everybody there.

Then, Eddie Iroh, the Director-General of FRCN (Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria) was in the waiting room of Ogbulafor, and when they said, it was me on the line, he ran out and brought his crew and connected us on the 4pm news where he spoke with me asking me questions and I answered that I was alive.

He said, where are you? I said I was in Choice Hotel.

Awka, that was where I was being held. So, Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief. And from there the Vice President spoke with me through the same phone and he told me, if you didn’t resign, there’s no need for anybody to force you to resign. Resignation is by choice, not compulsory, it’s voluntary.

So after thirty minutes, the IGP called me and said he was sending people to come and take me back to my office and I said okay, fine.

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Of course, when they came, it was about half past six. It was getting a little bit dark already, so I told him I was not going to my office again.

They said, no, that their instruction was to take me to the office. I said, no, I don’t want to go to my office, so they left me.

They knew I had a brawl with one of their men, and I had an earlier brawl inside the office with the AIG, when I was trying to pack my bag to come out.

He said I should leave everything, but I said, no, so we struggled for the bag inside my office and I came out.

So that was how Nigerians knew I was alive, and the rest is now history.

-culled from Vanguard