He confessed to killing his brother. So he was roasted alive in the village square as the motley crowd cheered. Innocent Benjamin, 35, was burnt alive in Ofodua, Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State, after he confessed to using supernatural powers to kill his brother, Ayo ‘Cassidy’ Benjamin, 45.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, August 18, 2021.
Villagers tell Pulse that Cassidy and Innocent were siblings from different mothers. After their dad died, the brothers engaged in a squabble over his property and who should have the lion’s share of his house.
“Cassidy was the jovial, fun-loving elder brother who however stood his grounds and told Innocent that his attempts to corner their dad’s sitting room and a bigger room for himself, weren’t going to materialize,” a villager who asked that his name be left out of this story
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According to other locals who corroborated this story, Innocent would then travel to neighboring Ebonyi State to acquire ‘jazz’ or ‘juju’ to “teach his brother a lesson” and end his life.
“He planted the juju in the sitting room in dispute. As soon as his brother set foot in the apartment, his legs began to swell and rotten. He died moments later.
“After Ayo Cassidy died, his friends buried him amid chants that whoever was responsible for his death shouldn’t know peace or should suffer the same fate.
“Before long, Innocent was walking around the village restlessly, while pleading for forgiveness from the spirit of his late brother who he said had begun to torment him. He was running mad, stark naked.
“He confessed to villagers that he was responsible for his brother’s death and narrated all that ensued and how he got the juju from Ebonyi.
“So, the villagers seized him up in that state of lunacy, tied him up in the village square, dumped his belongings on him and set fire on him,” another Ofodua resident who identifies himself as Oyama
Stories bordering on witchcraft and using supernatural, diabolical, or occult powers (commonly referred to as ‘Ijong’) to end young lives, are quite common in rural, agrarian Cross River State, south of Nigeria.
Old men and women suspected to have killed younger men and women are routinely meted jungle justice–including clubbing to death–in these parts.
