People have been wondering why warriors of Ombatse traditional religion were able to ambush and successfully kill about a hundred policemen and State Security Service (SSS) operatives answering a distress call on Wednesday, May 13, without even a single member of Ombatse being killed. In an interview he granted Nigeria’s oldest newspaper, Tribune, the National President, Eggon Cultural and Development Association (ECDA), Mr. Chris Mamman, seemed to give an insight when he claimed that Ombatse devotees are immune to bullets. Ombatse is an Eggon group, so Mr. Mamman (shown in photo) is well qualified to speak on the group. Below are excerpts of the interview which centred on the killing of the security operatives at Alakyo village in Lafia East Development Area of Nasarawa State, North-Central Nigeria.
Question: What is the origin of Ombatse group?
Mamman: The Ombatse is a spiritual tradition which was handed down to the Eggon people 100 years ago. We have not been hearing of the group because of the advent of Christianity and Islam, but the decadence in our society prompted this generation to go back to the hills to cry to our ancestors for the resurrection of the Ombatse. This movement started in 2002 and by 2006, the group had positioned itself and had members.
How did the killing of security operatives happen?
I was not there, but I will tell you the truth. This is a community whose only road is about five metres wide, which cannot be passed at the same time by two vehicles. The community lacks government presence: no water; no electricity and many other things. There are about five villages before Alakyo and they are all Eggons. 70 per cent of the population have never seen mobile policemen before, so, to see vicious-looking people with guns entering the village, jumping down from vehicles and shooting tear-gas sporadically shocked them and that was what led to the crisis.
If you go to an unknown territory, even if you have a gun, for how long are you going to keep killing? We don’t know how many rounds of ammunition they fired before these people rebuffed. I will advice the government of Nasarawa State and Nigeria to allow the truth to prevail, instead of looking for scapegoats. Don’t let us personalise what happened. Let us use what happened to learn from our mistakes.
Who actually killed the security operatives?
The Eggon nation has always been truthful. We are loyal and peace-loving citizens of Nasarawa State and Nigeria. We have never started a fight. Although we have been involved in a series of crises in the past, we never at any point fought anywhere. Every tribe in the country has its culture and tradition. The Ombatse leadership is structured such that its high priest is Lega Agu, popularly known as Baba-Alakyo.
I have started it clearly that the fact that a pastor or reverend was molested by some miscreants does not mean they did it on behalf of Ombatse.
This group is a spiritual movement which you cannot force anybody to join. Even if you want to join, you have to undergo a three-hour education on the rules and regulations before you can take the oath of membership. It is easy for people to use diversionary tactics to take the minds of Nigerians away from the source of the problem by linking a peaceful group to the incident of May 7. If Ombatse was involved in the crisis, the members would have either been sick or dead by now because it is not in their character to engage in violence.
Unfortunately, no journalist reported that some members of Alakyo community were killed. After the invasion of Alakyo, I got distress calls that three people had been killed. So, if you are concerned about the death of the security men who are constituted to protect us, what about the villagers, because the casualty figure would be higher on the part of villagers? They were going there to arrest a 76-year-old man, as they claimed.
Does it mean the Eggons don’t have a traditional ruler or constituted authorities? By this attitude, the Nasarawa State government has no respect for its own traditional ruler. If the government says, ‘bring this man,’ I would bring Baba-Alakyo within 24 hours. Our paramount ruler, who has been contacted or the local Eggon chief in that community to bring this man for interrogation as to the concoction he is giving the people.
This should have been done. I sent delegate to Baba–Alakyo that some boys are forcing people on your behalf and he said those boys are not acting on his order and he wants these boys to be arrested and prosecuted.
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