Members of the Ottihs family in Imo state are at loggerheads over the refusal of a relative to remove a traditional religious object known as ‘Agwu’ in their compound.
The relative identified as Mr. Joseph Ottih, aged 70 years was said to have decided to keep the “agwu” because according to him it healed his son who collapsed during a football match.
But his decision did not go down well with other relatives who allegedly mobilised the vigilantes and the police to remove the object.
Speaking to newsmen on the matter, Joseph Ottih, explained that trouble began when a relative, Hilary Onyema Ottih, returned from the United States and allegedly demanded the removal of the Agwu, claiming it posed a spiritual danger to him and his siblings.
“There was no trouble until relatives came and said the Agwu must go. They said the Agwu planted in the compound would affect them negatively. But it was in my compound, not theirs”, he stated.
He alleged that Hilary mobilised members of a local vigilante group to forcibly remove the object and that when the family resisted, he contacted officers from the Imo State Police Command’s anti-kidnapping unit, popularly known as Tigerbase.
“They broke into our compound with the vigilantes and took the Agwu by force. One officer hit me with a gun. I fell down. Another slapped my daughter, and another shot my daughter in the leg”, he alleged.
Continuing, Joseph alleged, “Hilary returned the following day with other siblings, armed with a pistol and a machete.
“He said he would cut off my son’s head. He beat me with a pestle on my back, my legs, everywhere. If someone did not stop him, he would have killed me”.
Speaking further, Joseph said, ” mobs later invaded the compound, destroying fruit trees, doors, windows, and a borehole, forcing them to flee the community”.
He noted that his family has been violently attacked, displaced from their home, and criminalised after refusing to remove an Agwu ritual object from their compound.
He added that his wife, Oby Ottih, was arrested by vigilantes at a market and handed over to Tigerbase officers on January 3.
“They put her inside the boot of their cae. She was detained until January 7. They released her only after my family paid ₦150,000″.
According to Mr. Ottih, the crisis began in December 2024 after one of his sons collapsed during a football match. Desperate to find help, the family sought medical and spiritual solutions from churches and traditional healers across Imo State.
“We went everywhere people told us there was help. Native doctors, pastors, prayer houses; we paid huge amounts of money because we wanted our child to live; payments totalling millions of naira: ₦250,000 to a native doctor in Naze, ₦170,000 to a Winners’ Chapel pastor in Mbaise, ₦750,000 to a healer in Omuma, ₦560,000 to an Ezenwanyi, ₦950,000 for an Agwu ritual for Mrs. Ottih, and ₦250,000 for the son. Other healers charged between ₦50,000 and ₦780,000″.
He pointed out that one native doctor in Mgbidi performed an Agwu ritual that was kept in their compound and appeared to coincide with his son’s recovery.
“The boy started getting better,” Ottih said.
Commenting on the incidence, Director of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches, Leo Igwe, said it exposes how witchcraft accusations, traditional beliefs, and policing intersect to fuel abuse and impunity.
“This is a clear case of witch persecution enabled by the police,” Igwe alleged.
He said, “Witchcraft accusation is against the law. It is the accusers, not the accused, who should be arrested and prosecuted.”
Igwe who visited Tigerbase on January 16 said he was shocked by what he found.
“The police invaded the compound of alleged victims and protected the accusers. That is the opposite of what the law requires.
“The Investigating Police Officer, Chikadibia Okebala, also known as “Kill and Bury”, reportedly justified the operation by claiming the Agwu caused fear in the family and community.
“He told us that local tradition recognises Agwu but the law does not. The Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion or belief.”
” Okebala even attributed a vehicle accident and the illness of the complainant to the “potency” of the seized Agwu.
“He was speaking like a traditional priest, not a police officer. This is dangerous. The police are not enforcers of tradition or religion.”
“The officer later showed us the confiscated items, a decomposing chicken, wooden carvings, a rod with small gongs, and red and black cloth, which he described as court exhibits.
“It was almost absurd. Watching a police officer search through a dump for a ‘powerful’ charm that allegedly terrorised a whole community,” he said.
The Director accused the police of working with the complainants to charge Ottih and his family with attempted murder and assault.
“The allegation has no merit. They will have to prove what makes those items a crime and how keeping them in one’s compound amounts to attempted murder.”
He pledged legal support for the family and renewed its call for urgent police reform.
“Witch hunting must stop. Police officers who act as witch hunters must be stopped. Training is urgently needed so officers understand the law, not superstition.”
Igwe, whose organisation campaigns to end witch hunts in Africa by 2030, warned that without accountability, cases like that of the Ottih family would continue.
“This is not just about one family. It is about whether the Nigerian state will protect citizens from superstition-driven violence or participate in it”, he said.
