REFLECTIONS ON THE WAYS OF ND’ EHUGBO (AFIKPO)
(By G A Agwo)
IKPO OKE-OKWU
Originally published in AFIKPO TODAY magazine: Vol. 2 No. 6 (Jul – Dec 2002)
In a way of definition, “Okwu” in Ehugbo dialect of the Igbo language means a ‘mound’ or heap. “Ikpo” means making or raising. Put together, ikpo oke okwu means making of a big mound or heap (usually for sowing yams and other farm crops).
The connotative meaning of ikpo oke-okwu when applied to capital punishment among Nd’ Ehugbo refers to burying someone alive not in the conventional long grave but in a sort of a sunk burrow pit. The victim who must be quite healthy and able to move about must have to be buried in a standing position, his hands well secured at both sides of his body while he is covered with earth from toes to shoulder and head. It is like a vertical burying of a big seed yam. Above the normal level of the ground, a giant mound (okwu) is raised. By the time the exercise is completed, the victim will have died from earth pressure and suffocation. To crown it all, a tree, usually abosi or ukpukpa or ogirisi is planted on the top of the mound for identification in later years.
That was in those years. In all known cases the victims were notorious criminals such as kidnappers, murderers and thieves of yams from farms or yam barns (oba). In each case, the immediate matrilineal family member (ikwu) officially handed over the miscreant men for such shameful public death. There was therefore, no thought of any person attempting to rescue the criminals or to exhume their bodies for the usual burial rites. It was a cursed death hated more than HIV/AIDS.
The usual places for such executions were farm-road junctions and yam barn areas located a short distance away from the village. A few took place at the village playgrounds (Ogo).
The writer is almost three scores and ten years old this 2002 and saw, with a child’s eyes, fairly fresh oko-okwu, but was spared the pain of watching that horrible punishment. Thanks be to God those capital punishments were few and far between, they were rare but real. All honest people preferred hearing about it to actually witness it happening.
On Wednesday (Orie) 20th February, 2002, a new version of this blood chilling punishment was enacted in Ehugbo. Three notorious armed robbers were burnt alive. Ehugbo vigilante youths grew irate with the menace of armed robbers in recent months and took laws into their hands. In their fury ‘ikpo oke-okwu’ was a laborious task so they resorted to “ikpo-oku” burning. Earth and hoes were replaced with motor vehicle tyres, petrol and matches. The scene for the execution shifted from farming and yam barn areas to the central market place – Eke Ukwu Ehugbo roundabout. Exactly three weeks and three days later, Saturday (Orie) 16th March, 2002, a second batch of two armed robbers were burnt at the same spot. That junction is now variously described as ‘okpukpo oku nd’ohi’ (burning place for thieves) or Nkpoku Obuagu (leader of the notorious gang) or Ehugbo Golgotha. On Sunday 16th June, 2002, a third one took place but at the Afikpo Government College road junction.
Ikpo Oke-Okwu was our ancestor’s expression of their hatred for notorious criminals and their strong desire to maintain a peaceful and healthy living environment. It is unfortunate that in this 21st Century the youths had to resort to jungle justice for the same reasons, perhaps. Within five months (February_June) six hoodlums were reduced to ashes in public places.
My dear readers, let us reflect on this: Can this fire for fire at all levels guarantee us a peaceful and relaxed living environment in our beloved father land? Ehugbo “Ayi ma emeri laa ole? “Where do we go from here”.
