Among other things, the police had claimed that the woman was declared missing after her death on August 27, 2004. The police commissioner said his men had for several months been keeping tabs on a sect which he led, before his eventual arrest and other discoveries at his residence.
Being a devotee of Guru Maharaj Ji, a faith many Nigerians are yet to come to terms with, the tag on Dr. Chimezie Osigwe, a PhD holder and retired school principal, was disturbing such that some of his family members, rivals and the police treated him like a convict.
Even before the matter was laid to rest at the law court, the Imo State government sent bulldozers to demolish his only house because he was labelled a ritualist, without waiting to hear the full story.
Today, the 65 years old retired principal roams the streets as a homeless person because everything he worked for has been destroyed.
In 2013, after the police paraded Osigwe, with him in a photograph facing his mother’s corpse at his residence displayed in national dailies, Osigwe became the talk of the town for the wrong reasons.
However, against all odds, relief came his way on November 25, 2014 when a High Court in Oguta Division, Imo State, presided over by Justice Goddy Anunihu, discharged and acquitted him after listening to his submissions.
The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was responsible for the death of his mother.
The judge also held that that the prosecution counsel lacked evidence to prosecute the defendant, who was alleged to have murdered his mother in August 2004 in his compound.
The court noted that “none of the prosecution witnesses saw the actual act of killing. They did not see any mark of violence on the body of the deceased. The prosecution neither called the police nor the medical doctor that carried out the autopsy to come and give evidence. This did colossal harm to the prosecution’s case.”
The judge said that while the two prosecution witnesses narrated how nobody could trace the whereabouts of Mrs. Osigwe before the matter was reported to the police, the accused gave a graphic account of how his mother died and added that, being a direct son of the deceased, he had more authority over his mother’s body than any of the prosecution witnesses.
What could have made Osigwe to embalm his mother for 10 years? The Gurist opened up on what transpired, during an exclusive interview with Saturday Independent at the Guru Maharaj Ji Spiritual Village in Ibadan.
His words: “All were spurious allegations and attempts to portray the image of One Love Family of Sat Guru Maharaj Ji as murderers and ritualists. I was a principal of a school for many years before I retired. I handled children in basic ethics of life, so I place premium on life. I am a frontline contender for the Eze stool in Ejemekwuru, my community. I am the most qualified. However, the bottom line was, how would a Gurist rule over Christians at Ejemekwuru?
“I am an Eze-elect. I am a vegetarian and a devotee of Guru Maharaj Ji. As an astute vegetarian, it is forbidden for me to eat or kill any living animal or being. We preserve life. I don’t eat meat or fish. So when some people accused me of killing my mother, I wondered what kind of human beings they were.
“The whole thing had religious undertones. That was the crux of the matter. I never killed my mother. What happened was that in 2004, when Chevron was conducting assessment to drill oil in Ejemekwuru, the company brought heavy machines into the community and cracked several buildings. Several houses collapsed in the process.
“That faithful day, on August 27, 2004, my mother woke up around 1am to ease herself and the wall of the toilet, which had been damaged, collapsed and fell on her.
“I heard her cry and rushed down to her room with my two sisters. She died before the dawn of the day, around 5 am. I then reported the case to the police and an autopsy was carried out. I took the embalmed body and preserved it in a wardrobe as I intended to sue the oil company for causing the death of my mother. My siblings, both those in the Diaspora and at home, were aware of my plan and they gave their support that the body should be kept as evidence for the case.
“The body was an object of litigation. I took the company to court for cracking the wall of my palace and for causing the death of my mother. The body remains an object of proof. We were not in a hurry to bury her because of our legal system. The matter was simple, if Chevron denied killing my mother the body is there with autopsy report as a proof. She was embalmed in her room.
“I was forced to face my mother’s corpse and the police took the picture just to ridicule me. The police, particularly the former Imo State Commissioner of Police, was playing to the gallery by being economical with the truth. It was sheer hypocrisy on the part of the police.
“The embalmment was done by a specialist so there was nothing like odour at all. My mum was kept in her room. When the police came and surveyed the scene of the incident they took the body away for autopsy and later released it to us. The police did not give us order for burial because the matter was in court for all those years. In 2012, I got judgment against Chevron and the court ruled that the company should pay us damages. The matter is still at the appeal court.
“My elder brother, Most Rev. Bishop Osigwe is in America, so also is my younger brother, Prof. Osigwe. Both of them and the remaining four of us that my mother gave birth to were born into the Roman Catholic Church. They all knew about the court case and the embalmment of our mother.
“I hate lies, that was what made me quit the church. I am not here to preach religion but I discovered that what was happening in Christendom was far from reality. I found out that Guru Maharaj Ji is the protector of life because he tells us not to tell lies and not to kill any living thing. Guru places premium on life, so how can they turn around to accuse me of taking my mother’s life? The creator is light. It has nothing to do with darkness.”
Now that he has been acquitted of the charges, is he planning to sue for damages? Osigwe replied: “They destroyed my house. Right from the day they put me in prison, Imo State government, under Governor Rochas Okorocha, destroyed everything I had without finding out whether the allegations against me were true or false. They criminalised me. I live on charity. I don’t have a single pin.
“Everything you see on me is courtesy of my friends and by the grace of Sat Guru Maharaj Ji. If Okorocha had not destroyed my house and had paid my gratuity and not placed priority on infrastructure than life, I wouldn’t have been homeless now. If they had not gone ahead of jurisprudence to bulldoze my house and declared me a criminal, I would not have been a homeless beggar now. My integrity has been soiled all over the world for no just cause. I have lost my important files and records.
“I retired from the public service without getting my gratuity and pension. What they have been offering me is peanuts. I put in 35 years in service as a teacher in Imo State. Now that I am enjoying the air of freedom, I will take out time to relax and sort out myself, because I have no fixed address. I have to start from scratch again. I don’t know what to do. Maybe some good Samaritans will assist
Source: Daily Independent
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