OMBATSE CULT, FINALLY DECAPITATED?

Icheoku, in an article of June 11, 2013 titled "Ombatse, when a cult becomes more powerful than the government", queried why a cult was allowed to grow so strong and so powerful, in a functioning country, as to become capable of intimidating the same very government under which it is supposed to be subsumed? Icheoku queried further how the cult's teeth got so fanged up that the government of Nigeria was so scared stiff of it that it became impotent, in the face of the cult's continuing flagrant lawlessness, to take needful action to reign it in or stop its nefarious activities? This was following the incident when the Ombatse cult murdered over one hundred Nigeria state security personnel, who were sent to its enclave to quell some national security problems the cult create. 

According to the story then, the cult members waylaid and murdered hundreds of security agents sent by the government to quell its violent excesses. But instead of sending in reinforcement or even the military to stop their arrant madness, in Odi Bayelsa State style, the government said, through the director of the state security service Ita Ekpenyong, that they will leave the matter in the hands of God? Icheoku queried if a government established to secure the a country would so dismissively treat a major national security threat, what then is the use of such government? If Nigeria has become a temporal state, why then continue to have all these security agencies, instead of just leaving everything to God? 

This lack of decisive response by the government emboldened the Ombatse further and it became one mayhem after another, resulting in the continuing state of violence that has been ravaging Nasarawa State ever since.  Every security agent also became mortally afraid of the Ombatse cult and dared not get near their enclave in Alakyo Eggon and it became a wild wild west sort of affairs therein. Icheoku condemned the audacity of the cult and equally berated the government's cowardly inaction and  disposition, which according to them, was in order not to exacerbate an already bad situation? Icheoku concluded that the government's offhand attitude was synonymous to tacitly encouraging the lawlessness of this particular cult and portends grave danger to not only the community but the nation in general. 

However, ordinary nomads, mere Miyetti Allah cattle rearers, with just their machetes,  bows and arrows, have triumphed where the Federal Government with its armada of armed security agents failed or rather coyly shied away from confronting evil? Icheoku says the dreaded spiritual leader and chief medicine-man of Ombatse cult, the man who facilitates and empowers this continuing brigandage and lawlessness in Eggon Nasarawa State Nigeria, Allu Agu aka Baba Alayko, has been killed. According to the story, he was caught, decapitated and literary dismembered to prevent his ever coming back to life, which legend has it that his magical powers could make him resurrect from the dead if left intact? The Miyetti Allah Fulani cattle rearers struck in the wee hours of yesterday morning, in a surprised attack that caught members of the Ombatse cult napping and begging for their lives. 

Icheoku says however this Ombatse cult crisis ends or is forcibly resolved, with the now dispatch of their leader to the world beyond as a prelude, it does and should not matter. What is important is that the much dreaded and feared cult leader is no more. If by his death, a lasting peace inures in the warring communities of Nasarawa State, then a good riddance. If his blood washes away centuries of violence in Nasarawa State, then it is a blood well shed? If his exit will usher in reign of peace in Nasarawa State, then hurray to his decapitators? But Icheoku hopes and prays that his death will not snowball a lingering conflict into a major conflagration that would engulf Nasarawa State if not the entire country? 

Icheoku says let peace return to Nasarawa State and may the death of Baba Alakyo be the needed sacrifice that would bring back peace unto this violence ravaged Eggon community. May his blood also now atone for all those security agents that his followers murdered in cold blood. Icheoku says enough of all these ethnic militias and their madness, wasting innocent human blood in Nigeria; and may their leaders also understand that they could themselves, someday, meet similar fate as has now befallen the late  leader of Ombatse! What a cruel irony that a man this powerful could be so easily cut down, decapitated and dismembered? What a life we all humans choose to live for ourselves - playing God with other peoples' lives and forgetting that we all equally bleed and can be bled to death too. Lesson delivered and hopefully learnt. Adieu Allu.