By Chinwe Onwosi
When St. Mary’s catholic church arrived Nkomoro community in Ezza North LGA of Ebonyi State years back, indigenes of the community heaved a sigh of relief being in tune with the predominate characteristics of Catholic priests who are known for love, care, humanity consciousness and community / social works.
But for Chidinma Onele, a nine year old orphan who lost her father in the year 2013 as well as her mother who abandoned her for a second marriage, Monday 5, October 2020 was indeed for her, a black Monday.
Chidinma Onele was accosted by Rev. Father Ejike Odunze , the Catholic Priest of Saint Mary’s Parish, Nkomoro in Ezza North LGA where bully freak priest tortured the little girl after having lashed her severally with cane, causing body injuries on her.
But little Chidinma is just receiving her own portion of the torture as the priest was said to be involved in such act continually. A source who do not want his name in print, told The Voice that the priest had in another circumstance totured one Success Nwokoporo, a five year old boy of the same NkomoroCommunity.
Narrating the incident, the elder step sister to the victim, Mrs. Ngozika Onele told The Voice that she arrived the premises of the Church around 4:pm same Monday following a distress call she received from neighborhood and discovered that her little sister was already caged in an enclosure fully secured with metal burglary proofs ostensibly meant for a generating set.
Mrs. Onele further stated that before her arrival at the premises of the church, she called the Traditional ruler of the community Ezeogo David Nworie, who promised to put a call across to the catholic priest.
She recalled that upon her arrival at the church premises she found out that the Ezeogo may not have spoken with the priest over the matter. “It is at this point that I now called one of our stakeholders Barr. Jacob Nwakpa and informed him of the ordeals of my little sister in the hands of the catholic priest.
“Barr. Nwakpa promised me to put a call across to the priest, and after sometime, he called me back to inform me that he was unable to reach the priest on phone. “left with no other option I then called my brother who came and approached the priest to find out what the matter was all about but the priest rather ignored him and told my brother that he never invited him.
“My brother now left, and called some executive members of the church council , namely; Hyacinth Nworie , Mrs. Oganyi Veronica and Ikebu Cletus who came immediately and approached the priest as church council members but the priest again rebuff them. Rather, he directed them to me tell the trio what happened.
“when this council executives approached me, I took them to where my sister was locked up in the church premises, and after interviewing my sister , they went back to the priest to plead for the release of the little girl.
“When I noticed that the priest was never ready to release my sister, I raised my voice to attract the attention of the neighborhood beckoning on the priest to leave the innocent girl.
“The priest raised the cane on his hand to flog me, but I dodged the stroke which landed on his house help known as Chidera because all of us were standing closely. Mrs. Ngozika narrated.
The Voice investigation revealed that the priest flogged, locked and tortured little miss Chidinma Onele on the ground that she was one of the people who have been picking falling fruits locally known as “Ukpaka” within the church premises.
When Voice visited Echiegu police station, where Mrs. Ngozika and Kelechi Nwali were detained for allegedly attacking the parish priest, it was gory sight as the detainees visible looked famished as they were in the police custody since Tuesday.
The Voice further gathered that the duo was arrested on the prompt of the chairman of Ezza North LGA, Dr. Mrs. Nora Aloh.
But in a telephone chat with The Voice, the Ezza North LGA chairman, Dr. Mrs. Nora Aloh said the council was making effort to resolve the matter amicable.
The chairman who spoke in a deep lone tone said “My dear I don’t have to take everything I did to the Media”
“As I told you we are resolving the matter, if you want to know how we are resolving the matter, you can take a trip to the council.”
As at the time of this report, several efforts made to speak with the priest on the matter proved abortive as he had continually and repeatedly hung his phone calls without uttering any word.
