Case file · Witch trials
The Okija shrine raid
In August 2004, Nigerian police raided shrines at Okija, Anambra State, and found dozens of decomposing bodies and skulls in the surrounding forest.
2004 CE · 5.87, 6.83 · status: official
The account
Shrine priests said the dead had sworn false oaths before the deity and been killed by it, and that families left the bodies because burial was forbidden. The case caused national shock because prominent politicians were said to have sworn loyalty oaths there.
The sceptical view
Police treated the deaths as murders; the belief in oath-enforcing deities gave shrines power to settle disputes outside the courts.