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The Backgound
The beautiful city of Owerri in Imo State, was known for her significant state of serenity and tranquility. It was popularly known as a conservative city, where both inhabitants and travelers could attest to such fact.
However, without warning, the early nineties came in with severe shocks, as specific affluent indigenes and residents within the confines of Owerri began living and displaying extravagant boastful lifestyles with ostentatious possessions. This was undeniably apparent, as the mansions they lived in, the automobiles they drove, the businesses they owned and most importantly, the parties they hosted were highly exorbitant.
This sort of lifestyle caught the attention of Imolites especially in Owerri, where these folks majorly operated in. Arguments rose amongst the indigenes of Imo state concerning the outpour of wealth displayed, whereby many suspected the source of their wealth as being illegal and implored the police force to undergo investigations, while others perceived their wealth as a result of mere hard work. Fortunately, the aforementioned dilemma was resolved, as the last straw that broke the camel's back was just around the corner.
The Story
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The "Otokoto" saga was birthed by a fateful event which took place on the 19th of September, 1996. It all began when an 11-year old boy named Ikechukwu Okoronkwo was murdered (and beheaded) for rituals by a young man named Innocent Ekeayawu in a popular hotel known as "The Otokoto's"
it is indeed true that a person's name does not in any way define their actions.
Moving forward, this little boy was all about his usual daily routines as a groundnut hawker, were he sold cooked groundnuts on the streets of Owerri. The 11-year old was connived by Mr.Innocent with a cold drink, which served as a bait into drawing the little boys attention towards the hotel. Sadly, he was afterwards drugged and beheaded with his remains buried in shallow grave. Mr. Innocent immediately conveyed a vehicle to dispatch the body parts to his partners in crime resident without knowing he was already being tracked by the police whose attention was called upon by the driver that conveyed him and fortunately saw blood dripping down the black backpack he held.
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In a nut shell, after rigorous investigations, it was brought to the book that the brain behind the killing of the young boy was traced down to the owner of the Otokoto Hotel, Chief Vincent Duru alongside his associates, Leonard Unaogu. Furthermore, it was even discovered that the major killings and kidnapping were all perpetrated by this notorious gang that showed off an immense amount of wealth oppressively. Anger relentlessly grew in the hearts of disgruntled youths which caused an uproar outburst of a major riot that lasted for two days in Imo State. All possessions traced to these suspects were burnt down including the “Otokoto Hotel".
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Additionally, it was later revealed that guests at the Otokoto hotel never returned to their distinct destinations alive, as measures where continually put in place to kill them for rituals.
However, the court brought the suspects to trail who were all executed after numerous adjournments and appeals.
The Otokoto Effect and Conclusion
From the above story, it is known that the word "Otokoto" was derived from the name of the hotel where young Ikechukwu with many other unidentified children and adults were killed. During these periods, people were suddenly identified missing without any trace of their existence up till today. This saga affected the following sector in Owerri, which were:
1 The Educational Sector:children were no longer safe going to school as parents made extra effort to protect their children, while the poor homes had no other option than to stop their children from going to school during those times. To them, being alive was the best legacy!
2 The Market Sector: businesses were closed before their usual time as a result of the killings which were mainly perpetrated at night. In order to arrive to their various destinations early, they had to close before time which affected their sales and caused a number of businesses to run into great losses.
3 Others: such as corruption, riots, insecurity were seen as major factors by which the above sectors where being affected immensely.
Conclusively, Nigeria till today is still in awe of these tragic events which took place some decades ago. It entirely affected the peace and serenity of Imo state and her inhabitants. Notwithstanding, ritual killings till today is still invoke at all parts of Nigeria, where dark powers and fetish methods of accumulating wealth are still being used to become influential. However, as a result of the Otokoto saga, eye brows were raised to other several ritual killings across Nigeria which were later on exposed.
Nevertheless, these eyebrows were not raised enough to stand the test of time with respect to ritual killings, as our youths of today have taken up such act audaciously!
Hence, the name Otokoto symbolizes ritual killings anywhere at anytime!
It's your girl, Madu Precious and a warm welcome to my blog.
Thanks for the read🙂
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