APPLYING IGBO JUSTICE SYSTEM IN THE CASE BETWEEN OBOLLO PEOPLE VS ASP DUMIRI

APPLYING IGBO JUSTICE SYSTEM IN THE CASE BETWEEN  OBOLLO PEOPLE VS ASP DUMIRI

In Igbo culture, killing another human being (igbu ochu) is regarded as a taboo. Apart from other offenses in Igbo culture that are equally considered as taboo like a married woman who commits adultery ( Ntwa ukwu or igba okwa), igbu ochu is ranked as the highest level of desecration of mother earth(Ala). 

Usually, when the earth goddess is desecrated in whatever form, cleansing and appeasement rituals are usually carried out to appease the earth goddess and cleanse the land. It could be in form of offering animal sacrifices or banishment of the offender. 

This cultural practices  that I describe here are copiously represented in popular literatures that some of us might have read.

For instance, In Chinua Achebe's classic work, Things Fall Apart, the protagonist, Okonkwo fled Umuofia for seven years exile after his gun accidentally kills Ezeudu's sixteen years old son during a gun-firing ceremony. In fact, his animal were killed to appease the mother earth. 

A comparative example can also be found in Ola Rotimi's 'The Gods are not to Blame.' Odewale committed a double abomination of murder and incest. He kills his father and marries his mother albeit, unknowingly, accidentally. Mother earth visited severe ailments on the whole community. It took Odewale banishing himself from the land of Kutuje before sanity could be restored.

I cited all this instances to illustrate how the justice system of traditional African societies worked, and how it could be appropriated to the case of the alleged involvement of ASP Dumbiri in the accidental death of our brother Nnaemeka Ugwu. The land of Obollo  Dedu has been desecrated by his death. If the accused is found guilty, just as we ensured that the matter got the appropriate attention at the Federal House of Representatives, we must make sure that like the duo tragic heroes Okonkwo and Odewale, Dumbiri must be banished from operating anywhere near Nsukka cultural zone to stop further desecration of our sacred land with his needless killings. We can do this. Shalom!!!