The sudden death of three Federal Road Safety Corps officials on Wednesday has invoked the influence of traditionalism in some areas of Nigerian life.
The officials were said to have died after they were struck by lightning in Ogun State.
According to a report in ‘The Vanguard’, the tragedy occurred in the ancient town of Ilese, near Ijebu-Ode, in Ijebu North-East local government area of Ogun State.
The lightning was said to have struck at about 10am while officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were preparing for the early morning parade within the vicinity of their office located at the old toll gate.
The paper said a senior member of the Corps disclosed that there were about twelve officials in the same office when the lightning struck the three of them.
“Men of the state’s special security outfit code-named “OP MESA” have taken over security of the entire area, chasing onlookers away and preventing journalists from taking pictures.
“Also, traditionalists worshipers otherwise known as Sango adherents have joined other FRSC officials at the scene of the incident in Ilese Ijebu in a bid to perform some traditional rites on the corpses before they are released to government officials for burial,” it said.
Although Sango was a powerful Alaafin of Oyo, he is viewed as the most powerful and feared of the orisha pantheon.
Sources quote his believers as saying he casts a “thunderstone” to earth, which creates thunder and lightning, to anyone who offends him. Worshippers in Yorubaland in Nigeria do not eat cowpea because they believe that the wrath of the god of iron would descend on them.
“The Ṣàngó god necklaces are composed in varying patterns of red and white beads; usually in groupings of four or six which are his sacred numbers. Rocks created by lightning strikes are venerated by Ṣàngó worshipers; these stones, if found, are maintained at sacred sites and used in rituals. Ṣàngó is called on during coronation ceremonies in Nigeria to the present day,” an online account noted.
