Blood has been spilled again on the ancestral soil of Igalaland. On Monday evening, tragedy struck Ogane-Okete in Dekina Local Government of Kogi State, when armed Fulani herdsmen reportedly attacked and gruesomely murdered an Igala son, Ocholi James Isah Ichaba. His head was severed from his body — a desecration that has sent shockwaves across the land of Ayegba Om’Idoko.
Eyewitnesses narrated the horror with trembling voices. “We found his lifeless body in the farmland, but his head was missing. It is too painful for words,” one villager said, struggling to hold back tears. Another resident lamented, “ several attacks have been going on unchecked. From Itobe to Ochadamu, kidnappers and killers now prowl like hungry lions, and nobody seems to care.”
The killing has ignited a storm of anger and sorrow among the Igala people, both at home and in the diaspora. Many describe the act not only as a murder but as a sacrilege against the ancestral spirits of Igalaland. A youth leader from Dekina voiced his outrage: “This is not just about Ocholi James. This is about the soul of Igala land. If we remain silent, then tomorrow it will be another brother, another sister.”
Security analysts warn that the unchecked spread of violence in Kogi East mirrors a larger national failure to address rural insecurity. For villagers in Dekina, however, the statistics mean little compared to the raw grief of watching their kin fall prey to machetes and bullets.
Calls for unity and action are now reverbrating across Igala communities worldwide. “The time for silence is over,” declared an elder statesman. “We must rise as one people to defend our land, or else our ancestral inheritance will be auctioned by fear and bloodshed.”
This latest beheading, critics argue, underscores not just the failure of local and federal security agencies but the creeping normalization of horror in communities once known for peace and hospitality. From farmers abandoning their lands to families fleeing their homes, the cost of silence is mounting.
For the Igala nation, this is more than a headline. It is a call to conscience. A cry of anguish. A demand for immediate justice.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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