As big as the town was, the leaders of the town maintained no jail or prisons.
The leaders of the town were more interested in studying the root causes of a crime than punishing the criminal.
For us, something must have ignited the fire of crime in a citizen.
In Nnewi Jurisprudence, Stealing was classified into the following groups:
1. Ohi Aguu (i.e the stealing caused by hunger)
2.Ohi Akantutu or Kleptomaniac
3. Ohi Ngbakui or stealing caused by influence of juju in which case the thief is regarded as a victim of spiritual manipulation.
4. Ohi Anya Odo or stealing done wilfully.
In a bid to curtail the first type of stealing, all levels of authority in Nnewi ensured that no young man was allowed to loaf around.
Anybody was also free to harvest from any farm at the end of harvest season, any missed out or unharvested yam, cocoyam and cassava without fear of harassment from the farm owners.
This is still practised in Nnewi till date. It is called "ije mkpa".
Most children of my age did a lot of "ije mkpa ji" or hunting for unharvested yam, a month after the first rain before the next farming season.
A sprouting yam tendril in a harvested farm was indicative of an missed out yam tuber.
A lucky hunter might dig out a big tuber or a small yam stump so small to warrant the harvester's effort during the harvest.
It was no crime for kids to pluck any fruits to quench hunger.
I could remember that I was guilty of this kind of offence and had long confessed same to the late Monsignor Joe Nwaibegbunam at St. Peter Clavers Catholic Church Otolo Nnewi.
Also, stealing of cassava or cocoyam from anybody's farm just for consumption was treated as a minor offence which attracted only a reprimand by the head of the extended family or umunna, if the victim decided to escalate the matter.
The thief would be advised to learn how to be industrious and would be assisted with farm inputs and land to become useful.
However, stealing of yam, which was regarded as the chief of all farm produce, was highly prohibited.
Any wilful stealing of yam from a farm before harvest season or from a yam barn either out of hunger or for sale attracted the punishment of being driven around the market square and taunted as "onye ohi ji" or "yam thief" and a fine.
The sheer stupidity and the style of stealing could make it so obvious that the thief was either a Kleptomaniac (Ohi Akantutu) or under the influence of juju (Ohi Ngbakui).
Thieves in these two categories were considered sick and were referred to dibias or native doctors for cure or deliverance.
The fourth category known as Ohi Anya Odo or wilful professional stealing was further classified as:
1. Isiakpu: this class were thieves whose occupation was known to everyone. They combined stealing with kidnapping and hired assassination. Even their robbery victims were so afraid to report them.
This group were sometimes patronized by the leaders or elders of the town to execute a king or a leader of enemy towns or a renegade warrior.
2. Ekpelima: this class operated with stealth and with the aid of juju that would make their victims fall asleep during their operations.
This type usually lived in isolated huts in places known as "ikpa or ozalla" which were distant from their relations' clustered settlements.
3. Abanidiegwu: this group were well trained hefty looking men that operated only in the night.
This class of thieves could empty the pen or yam barn of a household before dawn and while the victims were as sleep.
There was a man in Nnewi history who had imbued in him, the combination of the four traits of wilful criminality.
He was named Ukpabia. He hailed from Uruagu village.
Ukpabia forced Nnewi to accept his own rules that if anybody caught him stealing his yam, he would "tolerate" the owner taking back his yam but wouldn't stomach the seizure his "ukpa" or carriage basket.
The impunity of this criminal who defied all traps and plans geared towards liquidating him forced Nnewi elders to commission "igba agu" or "a spiritual enquiry ascertain which ancestor reincarnated him" to enable them figure out how to take him out.
When the result of the spiritual enquiries revealed that not only that Ukpabia was reincarnated by a deity and that he was fulfilling his destiny by stealing and that no human weapon fashioned against him would prosper, Nnewi leaders adopted another option.
Nnewi people from time immemorial, are not known to be so stupid to stick to a plan that does not work. "Ndi be anyi na abu dike n'obi kwe ujo Ekene" meaning that "it is never an act of cowdice to obey or greet an man with better weapon".
A delegation was sent to Ukpabia to broker a deal and an understanding was reached under oath.
Ukpabia wouldn't be harassed or called Isiakpu, Ekpelima or Abanidiegwu in Nnewi and in fact, anybody that openly referred to him as such would be fined provided that Ukpabia no longer would practise his stealing trade in Nnewi.
And he agreed.
Also, being that Nnewi people lived a communal life, it was very easy to identify the male species from a pool of day old chicks.
That is to say that children with clear tendencies to criminality were easily identified and trained as warriors.
There were many wars to fight with town's neighbouring towns for one cause or the other.
And in war, there so many things to loot.
While the criminally minded warriors had to win the wars to enable them loot, Nnewi leaders and elders gained from their motivation and gallantry to win wars against the town's enemies.
It was a win-win situation.
Also, the traditional chieftancy or Ozo titles were not available to criminals hence making those who wanted to take Ozo or Dim titles to lead honourable lives devoid of serious crime.
Broadly speaking, any serious society who relegates their psychologists, philosophers and thinkers who could help it study and understand the reasons why so many types of crimes flourish and who could proffer alternative solutions is doomed.
That's why the most effective or efficient EFCC or police force cannot stop criminal activities in Nigeria until we understand and fix the root causes of crimes.
However, many of our politicians and civil servants must have been reincarnated by the same deity responsible for the Ukpabianess in Ukpabia.
Nigeria should learn from precolonial Nnewi and support the Bill recently introduced by one inspired National Assembly member that proposed that amnesty should be granted to the repentant looters of our commonwealth if the looters agree to repatriate their loot, return agreed percentage to government and to invest the remainder in Nigeria's economy.
Was it not the variant of the deal Obasanjo's regime cut with Abacha family?
Evil is evil but not all stolen items are returnable otherwise, let the christians or Israel return the blessings of Isaac to the children of Esau.
Isaac was clear on who he wanted to bless but Jacob and his mother, just like our politicians, senior civil servants and their families and friends, conspired to obtain by trick that which was considered as stolen.
