…urges police to act fast on his petition
A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Tunde Ebenezer Omobobami, never thought he could become a hunted fugitive from the tradition his forebears had upheld and jealously guarded for ages. But he and his immediate family members are, indeed, now victims of the conflict between tradition and modernity!
Against his wish, his extended family members back home in Temidire, Odolua Quarters, Ile-Oluji in Okeigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, are insisting that he must lead the other devotees of Ogun in the town during the forthcoming annual festival already scheduled for August this year.
His own father, the late Chief Ogundayo Bamutula Omobobami, throughout his lifetime, served as a committed devotee of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron, rising through the ranks and ending his lifelong devotion to this feared deity of the Yoruba pantheon, as a chief priest and the Olori Ode (Head of hunters) of Ile-Oluji, his hometown.
Five years ago, when his father died, the lot fell on the legal practitioner’s elder brothers to carry on with the family tradition of being the custodian of the ethos and lore of the worship of Ogun in the community. But overwhelmed by the responsibilities attached to the office, in the face of modernity and the Christian faith, his brothers, after a short while, collapsed under the burden of keeping this prized family tradition, and following threats by other devotees as well as some other people in the town to deal with the Omobobami’s brothers, the siblings fled the town one day, along with their immediate family members.
Due to the inability of the devotees of Ogun in Ile-Oluji to trace the runaway priests, Akinwale and Olugbenga Omobobami, they turned attention to their younger brother, 48-year-old Tunde Ebenezer Omobobami, pressurising him to take up the mantle as the new chief priest of the Ogun cult in the town.
The younger Omobobami had before now concentrated on his law practice. He was, however, caught by surprise when some elders of his family summoned him only to inform him of their decision to make him the next chief priest of Ogun!
I thought I was safer living in Lagos, but I was wrong. I have had to relocate a couple of times to escape from these people. But they always somehow get to know my whereabouts. They have been trailing me and my family. I have reported the matter to the police in our town and I even wrote a petition to them on the matter
But having become a committed Christian, Omobobami, who is also a deacon of a church based in Iju, Lagos, the Prevailing Christian Mission, immediately declined the offer.
And ever since he did that, he and his family have not known peace! According to him, they are now being haunted physically and spiritually, allegedly by some devotees of a god in whose altar he has refused to serve as chief priest.
His ordeal has begun! Unidentified persons allegedly now stalk the Lagos-based lawyer.
The persistent threats and attempts to attack him, forced Omobobami and his family to relocate from a house they earlier occupied in Ikeja. He said that they had to leave the area in the middle of one night, a few days after some unidentified persons, armed with dangerous weapons, who he insisted were agents of the Ogun cult, stormed his house. Omobobami said he was, however, lucky as the alarm raised by his neighbours, who saw the men attempting to forcibly enter his apartment, made the assailants to scurry off and melt into the dark night.
And to keep his family out of the reach of these yet-to-be identified persons threatening their lives, Omobobami had to quickly relocate his wife, Mrs. Olubunmi Bose Omobobami, and their four children to an unknown destination, where they put up with some relations, until they were able to secure a new accommodation.
The 48-year-old lawyer himself began to live like a refugee, as he had to be constantly on the move to escape being tracked down by those allegedly after him.
Omobobami said, “Since two years ago, when my two elder brothers, Akinwale and Olugbenga Omobobami, ran away from our hometown, Ile-Oluji in Ondo State, and nobody could trace them, the worshippers of Ogun have been threatening me to either take up the office left by my brothers or risk unpalatable consequences. The pressure is so much that I can no longer bear it.
“I’m a Christian, a deacon for that matter. So, how can anyone expect me to go back to becoming the chief priest of Ogun just because they want to keep alive one archaic family tradition? I can’t do that! Now, aside from physical threats I get from these people always, myself and my family members have suffered series of spiritual and diabolical attacks. You may not understand what I’m trying to say. Sometimes, we see mysterious things and hear strange voices in our house. In fact, our home has become haunted with many unseen beings threatening to make life a hell for us before killing us, unless I accept the offer to serve as the new chief priest of Ogun. They have insisted I must lead the Ogun festival coming up this August and I can’t do that as a Christian.
“I thought I was safer living in Lagos, but I was wrong. I have had to relocate a couple of times to escape from these people. But they always somehow get to know my whereabouts. They have been trailing me and my family. I have reported the matter to the police in our town and I even wrote a petition to them on the matter, but they have yet to do anything and those threatening my life and that of my family have not stopped. They threaten us both physically and through some diabolical means. I’ve told them I’m now a Christian and a church deacon; so, there’s no way I can be involved in such a practice again. I’m done with them.”
The lawyer, therefore, appealed to the police in his hometown to urgently intervene and save him and his immediate family members from the incessant threats and constant harassment from his alleged persecutors.
“I just want to appeal to the police in Ile-Oluji to act on the petition I sent to them long ago. Last year, I sent the police a petition, dated August 18, 2017. I wonder why they have not responded or acted on that petition. I don’t know what else I can do to escape from these people. They have devilish intentions against me and my family members for refusing their request. But I can never be part of their fetish practice anymore. I can no longer partake in their beheading of a live dog and eating of the meat, not to talk of becoming the chief priest of the Ogun cult,” he said.
But a member of his extended family, Pa. Ogunwale Aikulola, told our correspondent that Omobobami must take up the office in order not to allow the family tradition to slip into oblivion.
He argued that the lawyer’s “new-found” Christian faith should not becloud his reasoning and make him go against a tradition that had been jealously kept by his forebears for generations.
“His father was the chief priest and Olu-Ode. He lived his life to the fullest serving our community in this capacity. But I don’t know what has gone wrong with the children of nowadays. When their father died, we had thought his children would naturally carry on with the leadership of the Ogun cult. But the two of them who took over just abandoned the community one day and ever since then, nobody knows their whereabouts. And this one too now wants to run away from that responsibility. I don’t know why. But I’ll advise him to submit himself and take up the role. The title belongs to this family and we must not allow it to go to anyone else,” he said.
