What ought to be a celebration of culture and tradition, on Sunday, turned into a day of mourning for residents of Awka, Anambra State Capital, as a tricycle crushed a masquerade to death, leaving its head open during the Imo Awka Festival.
The Imo Awka festival is held in May yearly to celebrate the town’s god, symbolized by a monkey.
The festival is widely known in Awka, and despite the prevalence of monkeys in the town and the havoc they wreak, no one dares harm it.
Though the celebration spans a week in May, to drum up awareness for the upcoming event, masquerading youths take to the streets in masquerade costumes long before its commencement.
They also carry canes, which compete with other masquerades in flogging, while some block motorists’ paths to obtain financial inducements.
The exercise usually starts far before May and ends during the grand finale of the festival, a period that spans more than one month in most cases.
Unfortunately, this festival is also notorious for claiming lives annually, as youths, mainly from the community, exhibit exuberant tendencies on the roads, while cult groups, most of the time, use the occasion to target rivals, who relax for enjoyment.
It was gathered that on Sunday, a boy in a masquerade costume was involved in a fatal accident after he was knocked down by a tricycle.
A video received before a visit to the scene showed the masquerade lying in a pool of its blood, as onlookers did nothing to salvage the situation.
It was also gathered that the tricyclist was immediately arrested.
An eyewitness, Tochukwu Obuewulu, said the masquerade was on the road collecting tolls from road users when the tricycle, traveling at high speed, rammed into him, sending him to the floor on his head and resulting in his instant death.
A resident, Ifeanyi Ugwo, reacted to the development and said he was not surprised, as the festival has been notorious for claiming lives every year.
“I am not surprised because this is what we experience every year. The question is who will be next and how many lives will be lost?
“Why would people not die, when you see youths who are dead-drunk driving dangerously on a tarred road?
“How will people not die when masquerades carry guns and other dangerous weapons, and waylay road users.
“We have emphasized the need in the past for the government to wade into the matter, but the Awka community must lead from the front.
“They must set up a committee to monitor the conduct of these masquerades and ensure decorum while the festival lasts,” he suggested.
