If you truly love history, you probably know about the confrontation between Prophet Eddie Nawgu and the Bakassi Boys. Eddie Nawgu, whose real name was Edwin Okeke, was a self-described prophet, sorcerer, and religious leader from Nigeria. Among Igbo people, he was most known as Eddie Nawgu in the mid-1990s. Because he was from the Nawgu village, a town in the Dunukofia L.G.A. of Anambra State, Nigeria, he went by the moniker “Nawgu.” Eddie “Nawgu” Okeke, 29, declared at the age of 29 that he had been touched by the Biblical God and was endowed with the capacity to “see” and “perceive” things that the human eye and other four senses were unable to detect. He constructed a building like a church and called it the “Anioma Healing Centre” not long after he started his ministry. He claimed that the “Anioma Healing Center” was founded with the intention of healing the sick and giving people hope again, but that wasn’t really the case. A few years later, rumors about his illegal actions began to circulate. For example, during a 1990 session, believers were instructed to bless two guys for whom the prophet had earlier prayed for a breakthrough (it turned out that the pair had successfully smuggled hard drugs into Europe without being detected). The self-described prophet of God was now being investigated for multiple crimes that had been committed in the state of Anambra as well as in the community. This caused him to come to the notice of the Bakassi boys, a vigilante security group led by the former Anambra State governor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju. Their mission was to find and apprehend criminals, sponsors of criminal gangs, and dubious-looking men. Eddie Nawgu was accused of kidnapping, supporting notorious criminals, engaging in rituals involving the use of human body parts—such as the skull—illegally possessing firearms, and sacrificing human beings. He shot to the top of their “most wanted list” as a result. They flipped the entire space around. The others were observing the child as he performed. When they inquired about the location of my husband’s gun, I answered, “Which guns?” They requested pump-action and handguns, but there was only one double-barrel gun available. I informed them that we lacked any. Saying, “I will cut off your head if you don’t give us those guns,” one of them raised his machete. Nothing was discovered by them. “Turn your back, or I’ll chop off your head,” he yelled. He hurled his machete in my direction, raised it, then dropped it. They assured…
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