Man declared wanted over refusal to serve deity

Devotees of Ayeilara deity in Esan community in Ogwa Local Government Area in Edo State have declared an indigene, Obera Innocent, wanted for alleged refusal to serve the deity.

Obera Innocent was said to have refused the devotees’ insistence that he takes over from his parents who dedicated him to the deity on account of his new found faith in Jesus Christ.

According to source in the community, Obera Innocent was dedicated to the deity as a child and to be its priest upon attaining 20 years.

However, as fate will have it, upon attaining 20 years, Obera Innocent gave his life to Jesus Christ, and vowed that he cannot and will not worship any other god but Jesus Christ.

This decision put him at loggerheads with other devotees of the deity in the community who consequently declared him wanted.

The devotees, our source further disclosed, proceeded to his parents’ home to apprehend him and forcefully make him the priest of the deity but it took the intervention of the mother who came out stark naked pleading for respite for the angry devotees to disperse.

Since the incident, Obera Innocent has not been seen in public in the community but our source hinted that he may go into hiding to save his life.

A concerned indigene of the community, who did not want his name in print for fear of reprisal, said it is time such harmful traditions are abolished, wondering why “in our own country, one is been enslaved to will of the gods and goddesses of the land”.

He said it is uncivilised and unconstitutional for people to be forced to do what they did not bargain for and urged government to intervene to end such harmful traditions.