The Very Wicked Person In Nnewi Can Never Die Without An Open Involuntary Confession

By: Anayo Nwosu

Ezeobieti had wished for death but would not get it. He would not die until he confessed all his atrocities. That was the natural law for evil people like him. No man as bad as he was and who had committed heinous crimes against his kinsmen would die in Nnewi town without confessing his sins in an act known as “ịsa n’ọnụ”.

As bad as death itself is, it avoids a contagious soul like that of Ezeobieti. Admitting offenders into its bosom without exposing the nature of their crimes would further worsen the reputation of death as an ultimate evil.

A willful spiller of blood of the innocent would not be touched by death without the troubled soul first telling the world the litany of how he had killed named victims and made lives of his kinsmen very miserable. He must divulge all that he did in the secret to a crowd of mostly victims and those in his waiting list.

A crowd of news-spreading people would always swarm to the venue of the confession as soon as it starts. The confessor must have to name all the people he or she killed with lucid descriptions on how they were killed. He or she must also explain the reasons why he or she carried out the crime to the last details.

Ịsa n’ọnụ is very different from what we hear Benin and Ijebu Ode witches and wizards do. In Nnewi, our evil townsmen and women ripe for ịsa n’ọnụ do so at the terminal existential moments of their wicked sojourn on earth. If after the ịsa n’ọnụ or forced confession and the evil doer still remains alive, which is rare, the person’s funeral ceremony is performed and 21 canon shots are used to send him or her out of the town. In the ancestral register of the Nnewi people, the person whose funeral ceremony has been performed while he or she is alive is deemed dead.

It was a spectacle where the fearsome Ezeobieti sang like a canary, a horrid song of iniquities. When Mazi Mkpume took “Ezeobieti” as an ọzọ title name, unsuspecting kinsmen accepted the name thinking that he meant “a man with a strong heart” but the events of his later years revealed his own interpretation of “Ezeobieti” as “a man who do humungous things without bathing an eyelid”.

What did Ezeobieti not do? He killed a wine taper on top of palm tree and killed many women with whose pregnancies were ripe for child delivery. In the list of remote life liquidation activities by Ezeobieti were the young, the old, and newly weaned. He was simply the Satan’s distributor of calamities to his people.

As his day of reckoning approached, Ezeobieti, who had not come out of his compound for two days due to inexplicable headache suddenly decided to go to Eke Ogwugwu market. It was an Eke market day and he chose to go sell one of his big cocks to raise money for tobacco snuff. He set a trap with grains of corn and caught the fowl he wanted. He was in the market as early as an 81year old could.

Perhaps, Ezeobieti would have been alive if he did not attempt to activate a miscarriage of the pregnancy of Chinualum, her friend’s daughter who had come to market to buy chicken. Chinualum and her siblings no longer greeted Ezeobieti after the death of their parents which deaths they suspected that Ezeobieti must know one or two things about. They had before then regarded Ezeobieti as their parents’ friend but everything changed when he refused to see the corpses of their parents as they laid in-state.

“Nne, ị bialụ afịa? You can buy my cock, I will sell to you at a good bargain”, was what Ezeobieti said to the young pregnant woman before the lady retorted, “ịkpọba i golu” meaning “you could buy your goods yourself ”

“Bịa mụọ ka m fụ” meaning “you shall never deliver that baby in your stomach as long as I am alive”, was all Ezeobieti said and the young pregnant Chinualum lost it. She went hysterical.

Suddenly a crowd gathered around the duo, begging the Chinualum to leave Ezeobieti’s by the waist. Chinualum was not fighting Ezeobieti but the crowd thought otherwise. The young woman was lost in a frenzy of a new tongue she learnt from a new religion of some whiteman called “father”. Her group was called “Ndị Ụka Father” or “followers of Father” (as Roman Catholics were known when they newly arrived Nnewi).

“Back to sender! The curse shall return to you as a boomerang! You shall be exposed today! I shall be the last of your victims! Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name thy Kingdom come…” were all the young lady was shouting when Ezeobieti froze and started some uncanny movements.

At this point, Chinualum released her grip on the old man’s waist as an unknown spirit took hold of Ezeobieti. Ezeobieti laughed and started gazing into the eyes of everybody without focusing on anybody in particular. He opened the lid of his bottled container of his wicked and horrendous acts.

“Ọnwụ kaalụm mma!” meaning “I am better off dead!” Ezeobieti shouted as he sat on the ground and began to tell his odious story.

“This girl is lucky as she would have lost her pregnancy and her life before she got home today. How dare she ignore me and go to buy cock from another person to spite me?

“Was I not the Ezeobieti that killed her parents for insults like this?

“I am in shock and wonder how she got married as I had cast a spell on her and her sisters that would make any suitor see them as bad luck”, Ezeobieti continued as the whole market congregated around him to hear as he catalogued his evil deeds.

The good thing about “ịsa n’ọnụ” is that once someone begins this unintentional confession, all those who he or she had afflicted and those on the waiting list would be released from the evil strangulating hold.

The native doctor or pastor delivering or curing any of the afflicted by the evils shelled by confessed evil distributor would not have to do more work or pray harder before the afflicted is freed. The strong force that triggers “ịsa n’ọnụ” or “ịsa asịsa” in Nnewi is cognizant of the fact that the close relations of an evil person ripe for harvest, would attempt to whisk them away into seclusion; hence, it is usually involuntary.

The relations of the evil doer attempt to silence the confessor to save their family from opprobrium or material bad name. To ensure that “ịsa n’ọnụ ” or involuntary confession happens, the force of nature ensures that it starts without notice. And when it starts, confessor would fight off any attempt by his or her relatives to close his or her mouth.

In Nnewi, we earnestly wait for the “ịsa n’ọnụ” or the involuntary confessions of evil and devilish people. No Nnewi man would marry or enter into serious partnership with someone whose parents had involuntarily confessed to serious evil acts known as “nso anị” or abomination. That is why my people neither waive or defer background checks or know your customer (KYC) known as “ịgba njụ or ịjụ ase” before engaging in any business or marriage transaction with anyone.