Lots of times I've heard reference made to Enugu people as "backward" and "primitive" people. I usually wave such aside as mere unfounded generalizations. However the recent activities of masquerades in Enugu have got me wondering if their traducers were right after all.
Under the guise of a Masquerade Festival 21st Century Enugu men went about terrorizing residents of Aku community, Igbo-Etiti Government Area of the state. Hers how PUNCH Newspaper captured the ugly scenario:
Outrage in Enugu as masquerades strip women
| By Ozioma Ubabukoh, Enugu | |
| Saturday, 19 Mar 2011 | |
The incident occurred in broad daylight. SATURDAY PUNCH gathered that the latest masquerade scourge is worse in Ugwunani village in Aku community, where a dreaded Ocho-oku diety linked to the Odo masquerades has been making life unbearable for residents, especially women.
Eyewitnesses said that one of those stripped, whose name could not be ascertained, was a visitor.
According to them, she was attacked at Eke-Aku by the masquerades, who completely removed her blouse and compelled her to pay a ransom of N1, 700 to regain her freedom for wearing trousers in the area during the period of the Odo masquerade celebration.
The case of the second victim, Lucy Igarra, was said to be worse as she was completely stripped by the masquerades, who accosted her a few metres from her family house at Umu-Eneke Quarters in Oshigo village and demanded why she wore a pair of trousers on a particular Odo masquerade day.
Our correspondent gathered that Igarra was a single mother of a set of twins and her ordeal started when one of the masquerades snatched one of her babies, prompting her to protest by daring the assailant to return the child.
Narrating his ordeal, the parish priest of Christ the King Catholic Church, Ugwunani, Rev. Fred Ogbu, explained that a young man, perhaps acting on the orders of some adherents of the dreaded Ocho-oku deity, had last week invaded the manse at about 12 midnight, demanding that he switched off his generator in reverence to the deity.
In compliance to the dictates of the deity, all residents and visitors to the Ugwunani area are expected to switch off all kinds of light at night on the day the Ocho-oku is on ground.
Ogbu, who said he was still new in the area, resisted the directive, a development that had continued to create ripples.
Most of the women and residents who spoke about the menace of the Odo masquerades craved anonymity for fear of being victimised.
Source: http://punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201103193382776
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