Some natives of Sii Community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, are calling for the urgent intervention of the state government over alleged invocation of charms, popularly known as juju, against members of the community.
A former youth leader of Sii community, Mr Barigbon Kenneth Wintor, and others accused some community leaders of invoking charms against members of the community calling for accountability.
Wintor told journalists that the alleged charms, were placed at strategic places in the community, causing fear among the people.
They called for the immediate removal of the charms to save the people of Sii from further misfortune.
His words: “I am calling on the government to come and rescue Sii from regular death from the invocation of juju. Our youths are dying everyday just because of the invocation of juju.
“Most people living and doing business in Sii now live in fear of the unknown. Infact, about 50 per cent of the women in my community are being poisoned and they have one illment or the other through witchcraft.
“The juju has led boys into sporadic killing. We are no longer save in our own community because leaders are afraid of differences in opinion.”
Wintor insisted that, “as I speak, the side of the invocation can be assessible to the media if they want to come and verify. They went as far as building huts to house the juju. That is why we are using this medium to call on the relevant agencies, the traditional ruling council to come to our aid, to tell these chiefs and leaders to remove this juju and also do proper cleansing of our community according to the custom and tradition of Ogoni nationality so that our people will be safe.”
Also speaking, a concerned indigene of Sii community based in the USA, Fortune Diginee, appeales to the Rivers State Government, the Ogoni Council of Chiefs, the Khana Council chairman, and Kagote to intervene in what he described as an unfortunate incident in Sii community.
Diginee wondered why leaders who are supposed to be custodians of the people were turning around to invoke charms on their people.
He said the community leaders had, on January 2, 2026, during a town hall meeting, admitted openly of invoking juju against anyone who questions their style of leadership.
According to him, “we have not seen this amount of death on daily basis, it has never happened in the history of that community, see the amount of young men running mad in the community. We have never seen this sort of panic, the women grab their children, tied to their chest when they hear cry and wailing from their next door neighbour. They are worried, they don’t know who is going to be next.
“We cannot leave like this, this is horrible, this is painful, this is unbelievable that in 2026, that leaders of a community can deliberately invoke juju on their people to die if they dare question them go give account of their stewardship.”
Diginee also responded to recent criticisms against him in a media publication by some community leaders, stating that their actions are a result of his calls for transparency and accountability.
The US-based businessman emphasized that his NGO, known as, the Voices of indigenous people of Sii is a registered NGO, contrary to claims made by his critics.
He highlighted his contributions to the community, including monthly payments to teachers hired to support Sii students in the community’s government school due to a shortage of teachers.
“They tried to blackmail a non-profit organization that is duly registered and even a man that has given so much to the community, Mr. Fortune Diginee.
“I built the lab and library at the secondary school there from my personal fund. I am building a town hall for the community as we speak from my personal fund.
“I have paid the teachers who teach in the government secondary school because they have no teacher for Mathematics, English, Physics and Chemistry, I pay them N100,000 per teacher a month to teach children that are not my children. I am only a man that think about the poor and vulnerable.”
