By Okereke Udoakpuenyi, YeyeNews.com, November 14, 2021
A Nigerian-American has taken his case against the Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) public. The man, Traditional Dr. Ikenna Igirigi, in a chat with YeyeNews.com said that despite many petitions, bribes and pleading, NCS has failed to release a suitcase containing the instruments and materials he planned to use for rainmaking in the United States.
According to Dr. Igirigi who has lived in the United States for 28 years and in California for 15 years, he came back to Nigeria in February 2021 and gathered leaves, herbs, thunderstones (small meteorites that fall on earth as thunderbolts) and a carved god he inherited from his father which he was taking back to the US for his job as a rainmaker. At Murtala Muhammed International Airport, his suitcase was checked and agents of the NCS arrested him and took possession of the suitcase.
He said he explained to the agents and their leader when they took him to an office what the contents of his suitcase were and his occupation in California. They did not believe him and tried to extort him until he told them in a clear uncertain terms that he was from Okija and that the god, leaves, herbs and thunderstones were from a shrine in Okija. He went on to say that they became afraid and then told him that if not for the fact that they had called their boss (Oga) who was already on his way to the airport for the matter – an emergency, they would have let him go and check in the suitcase with the airline. They then told him to go, promising with so much trepidation that they would make sure the suitcase was checked in before his flight’s departure.
He said he was surprised that his suitcase did not make it to California after he arrived in the US. When the airline confirmed several weeks later that the suitcase was not checked in according to their system, he used a contact in Nigeria to get in touch with the leader of the NCS group that interrogated him. Dr. Igirigi said it has been one story or the other since then: they told him the suitcase was checked in; they accepted it was not and said they could not locate the suitcase; they said something inside the suitcase started making noise and it began to move and they locked it in the room out of fear; they said the suitcase then disappeared from the room by itself; they asked him to check Okija Shrine, that maybe the suitcase went back there.
Dr. Igirigi explained that his father, grandfather and great grandfather were feared rainmakers in Okija, Anambra State. He came to the US and was working as a registered nurse in Ney York when one day, as he was in a heavy traffic on George Washington Bridge and the news on the radio was about gigantic wildfires in California and other western states, it then dawned on him that his ancestors brought him to the United States to contribute his quota. It was then he decided to move to California due to the yearly wildfire that starts in August so he could be making rain to douse wildfires. He said he has been making rain in California for 15 years now to help fight the wildfire and even though the fire department in state of California is not paying him enough, he is happy to be in the same business his father, grandfather and great grandfather were in.
He said he came back to Nigeria in February to fortify for this year’s wildfire season and had taken those instruments and materials which his father inherited from his grandfather. He went on further to say that he was hoping to cause so much rain in California this year to fight wildfire and make enough money to help his relations and Anambra State but that NCS has “poured sand into” his garri. He said he is very bitter but conscionable and slow to anger.
Further, he told YeyeNews.com that he had pleaded with NCS, petitioned them, sent money to them, sent recharge voucher (card), and so many other things and yet NCS keep coming up with stories, telling him that they are still looking for the suitcase. “I’m afraid they sold the god”, he said with resignation in his voice and then became agitated: “This is a god we are talking about here. A god that brings rain, lightning and thunder. People will die. Thunder will fire people. Customs employees will start dying one by one if my anger overwhelms me!”
“Do you know the name of this my family god?” he asked YeyeNews.com reporter. When the reporter said no, he continued: “It has no name; it is that one, that god that kills a man when his life is sweetest. It is the silence between lightning and thunder. Men don’t fear lightning, they don’t fear thunder, they fear the silence in-between. That’s the god that kills a man before thunder finishes him off. That’s the god they are playing with!”
Right now, according to him, “My main objective is to retrieve the god in the suitcase, the god my great grandfather contracted from Otuocha with omu nkwu (palm frond) after he walked seven days from Okija to Otuocha, slept in a coven for three days and then walked another seven days from Otuocha back to Okija”. He also said he has contacted the US Consulate in Lagos and has written petition to the Nigerian Embassy in New York, the governor of California, and The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In conclusion, he wants to use this medium to plead with Nigerians who are connected or who have sympathy for family members or friends working for the NCS to contact him through YeyeNews.com if they want to intervene “because this god will not keep quiet for long”.
