Tragedy and myth of ‘African bullet-proof’

Sometime between daylight and dusk, Bosun Odubona, a mere mortal, became “god.” It happened on a Friday evening when in the company of his father and step-brother, he suffered two gunshots to the chest and another one to his midriff.

The brutality of the assault and daredevilry of the onslaught eclipsed the day in a mist of red. More importantly, it changed the life of the 26-year-old. He lost his step-brother in the attack and his father, a 64-year-old land merchant, suffered paralysis due to severe cudgel blows he suffered on his spine.

But Odubona, maddened with rage, attacked their assailants with both the blunt and sharp edges of his machete, killing one instantly and inflicting fatal wounds on another although the third culprit escaped by the whiskers. Save a severe sprain he suffered on his left wrist during the ensuing scuffle, Odubona emerged from the assault unscathed. He became a hero, fondly referred to as Orisa (deity or god) particularly, by his family and village folk.

Three gunshots to his vital organs and not a drop of blood! That is probably far-fetched. “It is very true,” claimed the lanky transporter, student and land merchant. Showing off a discoloured bullet spot above his left rib, the Banking and Finance undergraduate of a South-West Nigerian university revealed that the attack was orchestrated by a rival family of land merchants in their Waasimi, Ogun State settlement.

According to him, they were bitter that his father had beaten them to the sale of land to a local land developer and and international estate management firm seeking to invest in a residential estate project in the area.

Having failed at previous attempts to intimidate and extort his father of money earned from the lucrative deal, the rival family resorted to more extreme measures of intimidation. “The fatal assault was the fourth in a series of attacks on my father and members of our family,” recalled Odubona sadly.

“But I thank God…I would have been dead by now. My brother (step-brother) suffered just one shot and he could not survive it. They shot me thrice but I am here, hale and hearty, talking to you. Thank God for ‘African insurance’,” said Odubona.

By ‘African insurance’ the 26-year-old was referring to what native Yoruba call Ayeta, a talisman prepared for him by his father and which he conveniently wears around his left arm everyday. You would have to look underneath his shirt to see it. You would also have to be adventurous and entertain an abiding trust in the fetish to use it.

“However, using it is one thing, believing in its efficacy is another,” noted Obinna Jonah a.k.a The Punisher, a former hit-man for a notorious campus confraternity in Enugu, South-East Nigeria.

Jonah’s epiphany with Ayeta occurred on a Sunday night when in the company of his frat friends, he took the lives of his two friends. That Sunday night, the life of Jonah, then 24, changed on campus.

Jonah revealed that he was shot at “at least five times” by his friends and two other members of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity (SVC) but he “didn’t go down” because he had travelled with his Capone (cult leader) to be fortified by witch-doctors in Ihiala, Anambra State and Ijebu-Ode, an Ogun State township – miles from his Enugu campus.

And Jonah had “very good reason” for killing his friends. In fact, he hardly rues his part in the deadly encounter, because they “betrayed” him. “The three of us had planned to join the Supreme Vikings Confraternity (SVC) in our first year on campus but after matriculation, they told me they were no longer interested in joining. Few days later, I got to know that they had joined without my knowledge because they didn’t want us to join as equals. I got so angry that I abused them. I called them cowards.

Later in the night, they came with two graduating students who happened to be our friends from high school to treat my fuck-up. They stripped me in front of my girlfriend and her room mate; beat me mercilessly and made me watch while they raped my girl. The news got round school and I almost quit school in shame,” he said.

But he didn’t quit school. That was because a classmate offered him a reprieve. “He swore to help me get my pound of flesh but that I would only need to accompany him to make a report to the people that matter on campus. He said they were a low profile anti-cult group protecting and seeking vengeance for victims of cult attacks. Desperate for justice, I accompanied him. That night, I joined the Black Axe,” disclosed Jonah, adding that his first test of might or what is known in cult parlance as ‘ruggedity’ was the execution of his childhood friends and assailants.

Jonah went on to become the terror of graduating students and the “number two butcher” of his cult group. He emerged unscathed “from various gun battles and eventually graduated from school despite all odds.” Now, he runs an internet service provider in Ikoyi, Lagos.

The tragedy

The same could hardly be said for Abiola Orobiyi a.k.a Oro (Agony), an Arigbajo, Ifo, Ogun State-based park urchin and political thug. Oro lost his left palm to a gun shot. The park urchin and thug was a willing victim in a gun attack during an armed robbery in his home. No sooner did the robbers burst into his apartment than Oro, who was lounging on his bed with a female acquaintance arrogantly, warned them to leave his apartment “by the count of 10.”

He counted from one to 10 after which he told them to get out or experience his wrath. Dazzled, his assailants counselled him against his dare, warning him not to toy with his life. But when the robbers threatened to shoot him, he responded thus: “Ti e ba yin mi ti ko ba wole nko? (What if you shoot at me and it has no effect?).”

Stung by his cheekiness, the robbers decided to test him with a shot to his left leg. But no sooner did they shoot him than Oro screamed albeit ironically, “Oro! Oro!” Clutching at his leg in agony. This amused and infuriated the robbers who pumped three more shots into his leg to serve as a lesson to the thug and deterrence to other would-be believers in the anti-bullet charm.

Asides Oro, Lawrence Anini and Ashi Terfa were two individuals whose exploits were miles apart and yet sparked interesting anecdotes across two different eras. In the late 80s, Anini was the undisputed criminal kingpin in Benin, Edo State. He allegedly survived various attempts by the police to arrest him, because he supposedly had a charm that made bullets bounce of his body.

Thus his reputation grew so wild and attained such mind-boggling notoriety that ex-military Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, was forced to ask the then Inspector General of Police, Etim Inyang, “My friend where is Anini?”

The most intriguing aspect about his exploits was that while the citizenry, particularly the affluent, huddled in fear of Anini and endeavoured to alter their life styles to escape his attention, the crime lord operated brazenly in Benin-City, sometimes acting as a modern day Robin Hood by sharing his stolen loot with the “poor” in the market place.

After months of sustained man hunt, it took the courage of a police constable to apprehend Anini. The crime lord was in the house of one of his female friends when the police got a tip and the constable traced him there. The constable surprised him there emptying a magazine of bullets into Anini’s legs thus demobilising him and shattering the myth about the efficacy of his traditional African talisman.

Anini was demobilised by bullets despite the assorted charms and amulets around his neck. In other words, his belief in voodoo that erstwhile imbued him with the Dutch courage with which he operated failed him.

On the other hand, Terfa was a traditional native doctor in Benue State, until he met his waterloo by one of his patrons, Umaa Akor. Akor had approached Terfa to prepare for him a very powerful anti-bullet charm. On completion of the charm, Akor doubted its touted efficacy and to confirm it, the witch-doctor tied the charm around his neck and insisted that Akor take aim at him, with a gun.

The experiment proved fatal as the herbalist’s skull got shattered by the shot. He died instantly.

No doubt, like most men, late Anini and Terfa shared a common quest to hold on to life a little longer than mere mortals. While ordinary men would scamper to safety in the face of deadly bullets, both men behaved otherwise. And they paid dearly for it.

Saved by the whiskers

But for his uncanny instinct for survival, former President Olusegun Obasanjo might have suffered a similar fate. According to an account, in a book written on the former President by Adinuoyi Onukaba, Obasanjo acceded to a friend’s plea that he fortied himself with a ‘traditional bullet proof’ before going to the war front during the Nigerian civil war.

Weeks after the Federal Army surged into the South-Eastern part of the country, then known as the Republic of Biafra, Gen. Obasanjo was posted to the war front. While his family and friends prayed for his safety, a bosom friend who also desired that he returned unhurt, suggested a more pragmatic approach.

He offered his childhood friend a talisman, one that would swathe his body in an invisible ‘bullet-proof’ armour throughout his campaign at the war-front. With that, the friend claimed, no bullet fired by the enemy could kill him.

Obasanjo, of course, did not only refuse, he laughed at his friend. But the latter refused to be daunted and as a last resort offered him a deal. ‘’Loan me one of the turkeys you received as gifts, I will hang the talisman around it, and take a shot at it. If it dies, I pay, but if it doesn’t, you can take it.’’

Deal sealed, the turkey was produced and the talisman hung on its neck. At a safe distance, Obasanjo took careful aim with his service revolver and ‘Bam!’ a bullet from the gun hit the turkey on the head. With a plop, it fell to the ground. Dead!

A life-saver all the same

Notwithstanding the aforementioned tragedies and near-tragedies, the belief in the efficacy of the traditional African ‘bullet-proof’ remains deeply entrenched in its lovers’ minds. Such belief is accentuated by the persistent state of insecurity across the country. This has so far eroded citizenship trust in the State’s security apparatus. Consequently, not a few Nigerians across social classes and ethnic divides creatively assume unofficial yet central positions of ambiguity in the restoration of both personal and a communal social order and security.

The outlawed Bakassi Boys and Odua People’s Congress (OPC) were prominent ethnic militia who metamorphosed into alternative law enforcers in South-East and South-West Nigeria respectively.

The ethnic militia wielded sovereign power – to investigate, arrest, judge and execute suspects, street-style. And the members allegedly employed a hectic blend of tradition and modernity – totting both traditional and sophisticated weaponry and an intimidating arsenal of magical charms meant to protect them during frequent clashes with armed robbers and the police.

Thus it is hardly strange sight to see a squad of vigilante, gang of smugglers, eminent politicians, college undergraduates and even law enforcement agents pull up and saunter into the innards of traditional witch-doctors’ shrines to seek personal and group fortification usually. They do so hoping that they emerge unscathed during on-going or imminent conflicts like turf tussles, political crises and campus confraternity clashes to mention a few.

According to Odufuwa Iyunade, 71, an Itori-based local midwife and traditional witch-doctor, his clientele encompasses Nigerians of various social classes, professions and age-grade. “They all come here for divination and fortification rituals. Oftentimes, they request that I prepare them very powerful anti-bullet charm (Ayeta). And I do. But I do not and would never prepare such charm for the under-aged except on request by his parents. I do not prepare such charm for armed robbers too,” stated the witch-doctor who claimed he has a very special and rare method of detecting patrons who are seeking anti-bullet charms to perpetrate evil.

Corroborating the witch-doctor, Osaniyi, a police constable and Iyunade’s only son, disclosed that his father is widely known as an upright man. “He would never engage in malpractices no matter the monetary enticements he is presented,” said the 29-year-old, adding that he had taken officers of his department’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to his father for fortification a couple of times. “The results have always been favourable,” he said.

Ayeta

at a glance

There are various classes of Ayeta, with an assortment of methods to its preparation. For instance, the most sought after mélange of the charm at Iyunade’s shrine is obtainable at a “paltry” N5, 000.

According to the witch-doctor, some people would claim that they can do it for as little as N2, 000 or N2, 500. “Trust me, those ones are quacks. They are hungry people who are only out to deceive people. What some of them do is that, they consult powerful practitioners like me to make them such charm. And disinterestedly, they ask what is used to prepare such talisman. I deal decisively with such miscreants,” disclosed the witch-doctor adding that he usually prepares the charm as a tiny ring to be worn around the finger, an arm-band or a necklace.

Showing the reporter a prototype of the necklace, he stated that there is a more powerful replica of it obtainable at a minimum of N25, 000 depending on the purse and status of the patron involved. This is a powerful necklace of bone tubes, horn tubes, vintage coconut shell discs that are worn and faded, and its most crucial materials: tortoise shell and another vital man-made material which he refused to disclose.

The prototype which he showed the reporter was about 30 inches long with even shorter loops of bone, horn and what looked like powdered cowry and brass hanging down one and a half inches longer than the necklace. This necklace may be worn around the neck or made tighter by adding a second knot that it might fit around the upper part of the left arm usually underneath the cloth.

There’s also a string tassel, charred and granulated bird part to be added to the charm. Then there is the invocation rite too, stressed the witch-doctor with a wicked sneer as if to emphasise to the reporter that it would be in deed, impossible to prepare such charm without his help.

Towards greater security

Like Umaa of Benue State who was assured that Teshi’s charm would stop bullets from penetrating his body, Anini must have been assured that with his charms, he could never be caught. Goaded by such assurances, they became extraordinarily brave and heartless but when their charms were taken away, their courage failed them thus affirming that there is a direct correlation between the activities of criminals in the country and so-called spiritualists and witch-doctors that prepare anti-bullet charms for them, argued Marcel Udeme, 42, a police sergeant.

Those charms provide the false courage with which robbers operate and kill. That is why, for instance a deadly confraternity hit-man like Jonah could brave and survive the deadliest of gun-fights while an armed robber like Anini could afford to stay put in Benin-City even though he knew that he was on security agents most-wanted list and that the area was crawling with policemen searching for him. Anini allegedly wore his charm underneath his clothes before venturing outside for operations. The charms made him feel invincible and impregnable to bullets.

Therefore, the charm preparers must also be seen for what they really are. “They are accessories to crime,” argued Steve Eshiobo, a Lagos-based private security outfit manager.

The Nigerian police must endeavour to nip this seeming relationship between deadly criminals and their witch-doctors in the bud according to Eshiobo.

“It’s time they adjusted their armed robbery and other crime fighting strategies to become wholly proactive unlike their time-worn reactive methods. The reactive approach, where the police start chasing after armed robbers after the fact, has obviously failed. They must begin to take actions that would pre-empt potential robberies. The witch-doctors who prepare charms for such criminals must now be treated as their accomplices and must be put under police surveillance radar. In every community, the locals are very familiar with the so-called spiritualists hence the police should have no problems identifying them,” he said.

On another note, Olayimika Ogunrinde, 38, a retired freemason and leader of a vigilante squad advised that the healers be brought into police confidence and persuaded to provide information about clients coming to look for anti-bullet charms. With that type of information, the police could infiltrate the ranks of potential criminals, set up sting operations, as they would do in drug operations, eventually nabbing and jailing them before they strike.

Furthermore, any armed robber caught with charms must be forced to reveal the name and location of the “healer” that prepared it. Identified charm makers must then be taken into custody as accomplices and made to reveal the names and whereabouts of all the people they may have prepared anti-bullet charms for.

These people would in turn be put under surveillance and suspicious activities pre-empted before innocent people get hurt. But while the police return to the drawing board, let them not resort to random profiling. Like the identification of everyone that had at one time or the other, sought the expertise of makers of anti-bullet charms. “It does not necessarily make the person an armed robber,” argued Daniel Ottobong, 35, a police officer.

He said:”This is because, some honest Nigerians, out of naivety, would procure such charms in misguided attempts to ward off the bullets of armed robbers, assassins, accidental discharge by trigger-happy police officers to mention a few.”

Nicely said. It is uncertain though if such measures would discourage every “powerful” witch-doctor from making anti-bullet charms. It is even more uncertain if they would deter their teeming clients from patronising them.

The more times they cheat death in deadly gun fights or attacks, the more strengthened their belief in the anti-bullet charm.

With each escape, a colourful myth of invincibility is woven around them. No doubt, till a bullet or two find a chink in their much vaunted supernatural armour, puncturing a medieval myth with modern stabs of agony and death.