Throwback to 1958: Time Magazine on Chief Nwiboko Obodo’s Cult Murders
This 1958 photograph shows Chief Nwiboko Obodo in custody, awaiting execution for the grisly crimes that shook Eastern Nigeria. He was convicted of beheading his wife with a bicycle chain and suspected of ordering at least 400 other killings in and around Abakaliki. Authorities uncovered leg irons, swords and juju charms in his compound. A contemporary Time magazine article explained how Obodo led a secret society called Odozi Obodo. Its enforcement arm, known as Exepute, carried out brutal punishments against anyone who resisted the chief’s arbitrary “taxes” or dissent. During Obodo’s trial on August 4, 1958, witnesses recounted drownings, live burials and dismemberments. One victim, farmer Nwakriko Abam, was strangled, tied to his own bicycle and cast into the river for opposing the chief in a local election.
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