Few names in Nigeria’s crime history evoke as much horror and disbelief as Clifford Nwa Orji. He gained nationwide notoriety for a string of gruesome crimes, like kidnapping and murder, but the most shocking was cannibalism, an allegation that made headlines across Nigeria and beyond.
Cannibalism is the act of a human consuming the flesh or internal organs of another human being.
When authorities investigated and discovered chilling evidence that linked him to kidnapping, murder, and the consumption of human flesh, his case became one of the most sensational in Nigeria’s criminal history. The case was so infamous that popular musician African China referenced it in his hit song ‘Crisis.’
The lyrics go: ‘Abi na the one of Clifford Orji, Cannibal man when dey chop man body…’ But who was Clifford Orji, and how did he get caught?
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Clifford Orji’s Story
He was born in 1966 in Enugu State, South-Eastern Nigeria, and not much is known about his family background. In his adult years, he moved to Lagos, and it was said that he sold razor blades for a living.
To many residents, he was just another struggling man living under the flyover near Toyota Bus Stop in Oshodi-Isolo. Over time, he abandoned his trade, and he would often feign insanity, discouraging people from approaching his makeshift shelter beneath the bridge. After he was caught, locals started to call his abode “Clifford’s kitchen.”
Orji was largely dismissed as a destitute striving for a living until the morning of February 3, 1999, when a faint cry for help from his home under the bridge alerted passersby.
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Clifford Orji’s Cannibalism
The passersby, curious as to what or whom was crying, decided to trace the faint voice, and it led them inside Orji’s shack, where they were met with a putrid smell. Aside from the smell, they saw a pot of freshly cooked human limbs, wrists, thighs, and the dying woman whose cries they heard lying helplessly by metal pots and firewood.
The victim whose cries gave Orji away was identified as Awawu, a resident of Agege in suburban Lagos, and she was immediately rushed to the hospital in Ikeja. She had been kept captive and was moments away from being slaughtered. Even after medical treatment, Awawu later went into a coma and eventually died.
The mob that gathered pursued Orji as he tried to escape and dragged him back to witness the demolition of his lair. In the rubble, investigators also found ₦80,000, a cheque, and a cellular phone, at a time when the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) had not been fully introduced to the Nigerian market, which meant only wealthy people could afford mobile phones.
Orji had an accomplice/friend known as Tahiru Aliyu, who lived nearby, and the mob tore his shack down too, and found a 4-metre pit underneath where some of the victims were kept before they were killed and cooked. When Orji was asked how he got his victims, he said he would usually blow a substance on the forehead of a woman who would then follow him back to the underpass. He further said:
I will have a sexual affair with her to a state of coma before we slaughter her and roast… I am not alone. I have between four and 10 people. They take their own parts and go, while I wait for another `meat’.
He called his victims meat. A few days after his arrest, Orji was paraded before the media with roasted parts of human beings, including skulls, legs, hands, and abdomen. One severed head of a lady identified as Eno, a trader from Akwa Ibom State, was also on display.
Orji told interviewers that he had been eating human flesh for years. He also revealed that his colleague, Tahiru Aliyu, is the human hunter, while he was the butcher. The defunct Concord Newspaper quotes him as saying,
We have been eating human meat for the past seven years before coming to Lagos. It is our culture to eat human meat. We have killed over three people, especially young girls who hawk wares. We always lured them to our enclave under the pretext that we wanted to purchase their wares. Once they are in our net, we pounce on them and kill them for eatable meat.
The police suspected that Orji and his accomplice, Tahiru, were not only cannibals but also dealers in human body parts. The suspicion grew after they found large sums of cash, cheques, and even a rare cell phone in their possession. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen luxury cars stopping beneath the flyover, fueling speculation that wealthy Nigerians were buying body parts from Orji.
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12 Years Without A Trial
On December 7, 2000, he was remanded for murder in Kirikiri Prison, and in April 2012, after approximately 12 years in prison without his case coming to trial, Orji sued the Attorney-General of Lagos State, Ade Ipaye, for unlawful imprisonment.
However, prison authorities stated that Orji had completely gone mad at Kirikiri Maximum Prison, Lagos, where he has been awaiting trial. Deputy Comptroller of Prisons, Mr. Noel Ailewon, in a 2012 interview with Vanguard said,
Orji’s health is getting worse. He has gone completely mad, vomiting and even defecating without restraint, and is naked most of the time. Initially, we took Orji to Yaba Psychiatric Hospital, Lagos, but he was rejected because they claimed they did not have long-term medical facilities. Subsequently, he was taken to another hospital in Ewekoro, Ogun State, but was also rejected. Orji is mentally disturbed, and no hospital is accepting him. Unfortunately, one cannot be tried except one is mentally stable. So, he is stuck in the middle, and all we can do is to find help for him.
Clifford Orji remained in the Kirikiri Maximum Prison in Lagos for nearly fifteen years, until he was pronounced dead on August 17, 2012, aged 46. No one came forward to receive his corpse, which was deposited at the Isolo General Hospital mortuary.
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