Pimps and influential women who traffic girls from Edo State to Europe, America and other parts of the world, otherwise known as madams, are now said to be jittery about the curse placed recently by the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II on human traffickers and those who aid them.
The Oba did not only place a curse on those who paint the state in a bad light through the trafficking of girls from the state, he also forced the native doctors who aid the traffickers by administering oaths on the girls to “enslave” them to their madams, as the case may be, to reverse the oaths administered on the girls.
The pimps and madams concerned are now jittery and are said to be in disarray over the curse placed upon them…
And the Oba’s curse is no respecter of age or status. The story is also told of Ikoka, a community in Ovia South West Local Government Area, which remains yet a remote village in spite of the fact that it serves as a host to one of the largest rubber plantations in the country.
It is said that Ikoka village and its people were cursed by Oba Ewuakpe in the 14th Century after the people asked him to work when he asked them for food. The curse he placed on the community, according to historians, is that only their women would experience progress, while houses built in the village would collapse as they are being built and their roads would turn bushy as they are being cleared.
Today, Ikoka is tucked away inside the rubber plantation without an access road to the community. To get to the village, one has to navigate through the rubber plantation. Thus, it is believed that the village is still under the curse of the late Oba.
Residents of Iguomon community in Uhunmwode Local Government Area recently cried out that they were dying from strange ailments because of a curse placed on the community by Oba Erediauwa. Inhabitants of the community had to besiege the Oba’s palace to beg that the curse be revoked in order to save them from further calamity.
Pa Roland Ugiagbe Okhuorabo, the man who was supposed to be installed as the next Odionwere (the traditional ruler of the community), was quoted as saying that he would not present himself to be installed until the curse is revoked.
The foregoing are pointers to how much the inhabitants of Benin Kingdom hold the Oba’s words in awe. The people see him as God’s representative on earth. All the deities in the land belong to him and consequently are under his directives. His words are law across the state because almost all the traditional rulers in the state and some communities in neighbouring states are princes from the palace.
But besides the Oba, Edo residents are known to fear curses from any juju. For example, when fire gutted the Oba’s market in Benin in 2004, many of the traders came in the morning and found that some thieves had used the fire outbreak as a cover to loot their shops. Adun promptly summoned Aiyelala worshippers who held a procession round the market, warning whoever had stolen the goods to return them. By the following day, the thieves had returned the goods and placed them at different locations in the market.
The jitters that followed the curses recently proclaimed by Oba Ewuare II on the individuals responsible for the trafficking of ladies from the Benin would be better understood in the foregoing context.
Recent reports indicate that things are no longer at ease in the camps of pimps, madams and native doctors responsible for trafficking young ladies from Edo state to sleep with men for money in foreign lands. Many madams responsible for trafficking are said to have been in shock on account of the curses the Oba proclaimed at a ceremony attended by priests from various shrines in the state.
Some ancient juju and several others known as esusumahi were brought out as instruments for the invocation of the curses.
At the said occasion, the Oba also performed rites that were meant to set trafficked victims free from the various oaths they have been made to swear at various shrines in the state or elsewhere. The Oba also warned native doctors in the kingdom to return whatever items they had collected from the trafficked girls.
In invoking the curses, the Oba said:
“The juju will kill those who want to henceforth engage in human trafficking. Even those who go to other places to perform juju will also die. Native doctors should not force girls again, and they should return the things they collected from the girls.”
The girls are expected to pay as much as €35,000 depending on how much the madam spent to take them to Europe. According to a source in Italy, “the madams are not happy even though some immediately released their girls after the Oba’s curse. The Oba’s curse came as a shock to them. They said there was no warning or signs that such a thing would happen. They said the Oba should have given them some time to free the girls themselves.
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