100 masquerades pay homage to 11 year old chief priest

… as Abba community celebrates Ede Opoto festival
By Phil Okose Onitsha
No fewer than 100 dif¬ferent kinds and sizes of masquerades, last Sunday, at Abba communi¬ty, Njikoka local government area, Anambra state, dis¬played and paid homage to an 11-year-old boy, Master Chukwuemeka Akabuogu, the chief priest of their Oyi River shrine. This was in the course of the annual Oriri Ede Opoto Festival in the commu¬nity which he presided over in his capacity as the chief priest of the shrine.
The masquerades also re¬ceived blessings and spiritual powers from the chief priest who was clad in white attire as each of them danced to¬wards him and paid homage.
Speaking to newsmen at the event, the child chief priest said, “my name is Chukwue¬meka Akabuogu and I am 11 years old. I am the chief priest of Oyi River Shrine and I am holding brief for the sub¬stantive chief priest yet to be enthroned by our ancestors (the spirits)”. “Whoever that comes here will go back with blessing; he will live long and will be rich. But whoever that comes here with bad inten¬tion his name will be ‘sorry’ [will regret it]. This is oriri ede Opoto festival which we celebrate yearly to make mer¬ry and unite as a people. You can see masquerades of all kinds and sizes displaying, including dance troupes. It is a three-day festival, normally celebrated from the middle of the month of February,” he stated.
Contributing, a youth lead¬er and member of the Aka¬buogu family Mr. Charles Ike¬chukwu Akabuogu, claimed that it was from the shrine that former senate president, late Chief Chuba Okadigbo, (Oyi of Oyi) derived his power and blessing which he used to stand firm and fight for the cause of the Igbo nation.
He revealed further that, “for months we begged the little chief priest before he agreed to be the chief priest pending when a substantive one will come on board”.
Akabuogu, however, con¬demned attacks on tradition¬alists by the church adding that, “I am an elder in the church but I can’t leave my fa¬thers’ culture and tradition”.
Also speaking, Chief Obi¬chukwu Okonkwo, a farmer, stated that, “it is a kind of mass return to us as indi¬genes of Abba from far and wide come home to make merry.” He said strangers and masquerades are not left out as some of the mas¬querades come from Anaku, Nnewi, Abagana, among other communities.

source: https://orientdailynews.com.ng/news/masquerades-pay-homage-year-old/