Afeez Hanafi examines the trend of ritual killings by greedy youths desirous of making money by hook or by crook
Oblivious of the imminent dangers lurking in the shadows, Sofiat Kehinde excitedly left her parents’ rustic residence in the heart of Abeokuta, Ogun State, last Friday to visit her boyfriend, Soliu Majekodunmi, who resides some kilometres away at Oke Aregba.
Majekodunmi and his friend, Mustaqeem Balogun (her ex-boyfriend), had kept her fate in the wraps. She innocently walked into the trap of the teenage vampires baying for blood.
Before long, what she thought would be a short visit horribly sent her on an excruciating journey of no return. While her mother and siblings expected her back home to have a dinner she cooked half-way before leaving, her head sorrily lay inside a black pot shrivelling to fire.
Aged 20, Sofiat was the latest in the list of victims, mostly young ladies, whose lives were cruelly snuffed out by youths who believe money ritual guarantees a shortcut to prosperity.
Though Majekodunmi, 19, Balogun 18, and two other alleged accomplices had been arrested, Sofiat’s ailing mum and family would forever live with the scars of her gruesome murder, with little hope of getting commensurate and prompt justice – if at all.
“That Friday afternoon, she washed her clothes, mine, her mother’s and siblings’,” Sofiat’s elder sister, tearful Muinat Okeowo, disclosed as she narrated moments leading to her death.
She continued, “She went to fetch water and around 5pm, we decided to prepare beans for dinner. She was cooking the beans around 7.30pm when she left home.
When she didn’t come back around 8.30pm, I called her on the phone and she said she was already on her way and would soon arrive home. I then left for my house.
“Around 10pm, I called her again but her line wasn’t reachable. I called my mum to ask if Pelumi (Sofiat) was back but she said she hadn’t seen her. When I got there the following morning and asked after her, she said she had not returned home. I initially thought she was joking. I became worried. I was washing my child’s school uniform when I heard that somebody was killed at Oke Aregba and the head cut off.
“When we got to the Adatan Police Station, we confirmed it was Sofiat’s body. Our mum had been taken to Ifo because of her health condition. She has high blood pressure. We couldn’t break the news to her. She didn’t tell me where she was going. I later knew she told her siblings that she was told not to come with anyone. If she had told me, I wouldn’t have allowed her to go.”
One ritual killing too many
Though killing for money ritual purposes is not alien to Nigeria, the rate at which the horrendous crime is perpetuated especially by the youth in recent times has been remarkably worrisome. In January alone, several cases of money ritual-related killings across the country were recorded.
On New Year Day, the corpse of a missing 300-level student at the University of Jos, Jennifer Anthony, was found mutilated at a hotel along Zaria Road with some of her body parts including her eyes missing.
The alleged ritual killer, 20-year-old Moses Oko, who was nabbed a few days later in Makurdi, Benue State, turned out to be her boyfriend.
On January 4, the Bayelsa State Police Command apprehended three teenage suspects –Emomotimi, Perebi and Eke, all 15 years old – for alleged attempted ritual killing in the Sagbama Local Government Area of the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Asinim Butswat, said the suspects accosted one 13-year-old Comfort and hypnotised her to follow them to Emomotimi’s apartment. They allegedly cut her finger and sprinkle the blood on a mirror for ritual purposes.
“Vigilant youths noticed the suspicious movements of the suspects and raised alarm. The suspects were subsequently arrested and some substances suspected to be charms were recovered from them. The suspects have confessed to the crime,” Butswat stated.
On January 6, residents of Otuja Harmony Estate in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State decried the continuous invasion of the Eyita Sabo Cemetery by suspected ritualists reportedly harvesting human organs in the cemetery.
Some weeks earlier, a suspected ritualist, identified only as Kolawole, was apprehended with a human hand and heart he exhumed from a grave in the cemetery.
On January 11, a mother and her son were arrested along Itamaga-Ikorodu Road, Lagos, during a stop and search operation for allegedly killing the younger sibling for money ritual. The son, Afeez Olalere, reportedly told the police that his mother encouraged him to commit the heinous crime.
He said, “My mother took me to a herbalist who told me if I want to be successful in the yahoo business I will have to sacrifice one life and that person must be a sibling to me.
“The things he would need to prepare a concoction with his thumbs, hair, fingers and a passport photograph. So, we went back home and thought about it, then my mother suggested that we use my younger brother since he is just 21 years old.
“She also brought the poison which we gave him to eat. He died within 20 minutes after consuming the food. I was the one who cut out the body parts needed. We then wrapped his dead body and headed to the mortuary.”
As the year 2021 wound up, a suspected internet fraudster (otherwise referred to as a yahoo boy), identified simply as Osas allegedly killed his girlfriend, Elohor Oniorosa, on the Christmas Eve in what was said to be a ritual killing in Benin, Edo State. Osas, who fled after committing the alleged murder, had recently returned from Ghana a week earlier.
Oniorosa’s father, William, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, said there were cuts on her neck and hand and alleged that Osas must have taken her blood for ritual purpose.
He stated, “That (ritual) is what I suspect. We don’t know if the boy took her body part despite checking thoroughly. There were deep cuts on her neck and hand. I feel he must have taken her blood. I want the government to find him so he can face the law. I need to know why he killed my daughter.”
Early December 2021, the Osun State Police Command arrested two siblings, Monsuru Tajudeen and Lawal Tajudeen, in connection with a ritualists’ den discovered in the Iwo area of the state.
The police spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola, said the brothers were apprehended through a tyre repairer while searching for one Mutiat Alani who was reported missing.
She said, “The vulcaniser (tyre repairer) led the police team to the house of the siblings and the two confessed to the crime. They confessed to have killed two persons for money ritual.”
In another bizarre occurrence in July 2021, a youth allegedly butchered his father, Michael Olagunju, on a farm at Kajola, Odo-Owa, in the Oke-Ero Local Government Area of Kwara State and sold his body parts, including two hands and heart, to some ritualists.
Youths’ get-rich-quick mindset
Many factors have been adduced to fuelling the bestial act of using human parts for money rituals. The enablers, according to claims, include poor parental training, weak enforcement of the criminal laws, some Nollywood movies, preponderance of social media contents such as skits with bad influence and societal glorification of prosperity, even in worship centres.
Narrating how they orchestrated Sofiat’s killing, Balogun claimed to have learnt money ritual from the information posted on a Facebook group. Aside from the name of the group he mentioned, our correspondent also found out three other related groups on Facebook where the administrators – one of whom attached his phone number – boasted of having money ritual power.
Balogun said, “Two weeks ago, we planned to kill her for a money ritual. I got the hint on money ritual on a Facebook group. Soliu (Majekodumi) called Sofia to meet him at home on Friday (January 28). We had bought all the other ingredients for the ritual.
“He held her hands together with her head while I quickly slit her throat. When she wanted to cry out, Soliu strangled her and we cut off her head. He said he already had sex with her and it would spoil the ritual if he touched her head. So I carried everything in a basket and went to fry it. He was supposed to be using the charm with milk.”
More than ever before, the get-rich-quick syndrome, dubbed ‘yahoo plus’ has become alarmingly high with many teenagers and adults willing to do anything to cut corners in a desperate attempt to lead a flamboyant life, ride exotic cars, live in luxury apartments and spend lavishly at functions.
A TikTok video posted on Twitter on January 29 shows two teenage boys in a room waxing mythical about money ritual with local pots and other ritual paraphernalia littering the background. They ranted on in a mixture of pidgin English and Yoruba, alluding to a popular cyber fraudster, Ramon Abbas (aka Hushpuppi), as the 30-second video lasted.
One of them said, “You dey shout Baba show me way, baba show me way. If we show you way se you go fit do am? Se ole se (can you do it)? Hushpuppi jaye (enjoyed life); Baba jaye Dubai and USA. If you run too fast you go die young; if you run too slow you go die poor. Oya mukan (pick an option).”
In another recent video, three alleged runaway teenagers of 13, 14 and 15 years old respectively narrated that they left Delta State for Edo State to do “yahoo hustle.”
“No be say yahoo plus. We want to learn press (another lingo for yahoo). The person wey we dey stay with pursue us. As they don come pursue us, na him we com dey find where we go stay. Our parents dey for Delta. They know we are in Edo State,” one of them claimed.
Tackling money ritual enablers
Stakeholders have given different perspectives on factors that trigger ritual killings and how those enablers can be addressed.
A social commentator and lawyer, Mr Liborous Oshoma, said a cultural value system, which owed the upbringing of children to parents and the community at large, had collapsed and paved the way for societal life whereby “nobody looks out for anybody.”
Oshoma noted that corruption and lust for money dissuaded people from holding on to communal life which keeps individual excesses in check. Admitting that societal life was fashionable in developed countries, Oshoma stated that the states diligently acted as checks.
He said, “In America for instance, you don’t need to correct another man’s child but the state set up machinery to correct anybody that goes astray. The instrumentality of the law is immediately activated to correct any ill. What that means is that while they are leading a societal life, the state looks out to ensure that everybody obeys the laws.
“But for us, it was our communal life that helped us to comply with the norms. The moment we left that communal life and started chasing money, everybody started closing their eyes to the rules not minding how you make money. People started compensating those who have financial muscle instead of hard work. A man is given a chieftaincy title because he has money without anyone asking about his antecedent.
“Unlike in the cultural settings of the past, today we have ‘kings’ in government who debase our values and rules. The youth now have people, who can disobey the rules because they have money, as role models.”
To restore moral values, Oshoma said political and cultural positions must be occupied by credible people, who will not close their eyes to the process of the law.
“Who will, irrespective of who is involved, insist that the law must be meted out. In America, if you’re rich overnight and your source of wealth is questionable, the instrumentality of law will be activated. Once you commit a crime, you will be tried,” he added.
The National President of the Parent-Teacher Association, Haruna Danjuma, observed that the defects of youths engaging in ritual money could be traced to parentage. He noted that some parents and guardians barely paid attention to their children by counseling and supervising them to ensure they do the right thing at the right time.
He said, “This could be one of the reasons. It is as a result of the non-challant attitude of some parents that lead to this crime. Parents need to teach their children to know God and how to worship Him beyond sending them to school.”
Danjuma also identified peer group pressure as another cause, saying that children were initiated into ritual killings, internet fraud, cultism, drug abuse, kidnapping, among others because their parents failed to live up to their responsibilities.
He stated, “Every parent must make sure they invest heavily in their children; make them your friends. But how many parents can do that? Some parents leave home early in the morning and won’t come back until late in the night and the children go around and mingle with anybody on the street. More than 60 per cent of the parents are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.”
A Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist, Jiti Ogunye, noted that though people could easily link ritual killings to many factors, failure of society to enforce the laws to the letter encouraged more people to indulge in the dastardly act believing they could go unpunished.
He said, “Our society has become more permissive to accommodating wrongs and allow crimes to thrive. In the Abeokuta incident, one of the suspects cannot even be charged to court at that age. But those minors knew the implication of what they were doing.
“People who kill are not arrested. When some are arrested, they are not properly investigated; possibly they bribe their way out. When they are investigated, they may not be properly prosecuted; we have shoddy prosecutions and they are set free. When they are properly prosecuted, they may not be rightly adjudged guilty. And when they are even adjudged guilty and the capital punishment is upheld, our prosecuting governors will not sign death warrant.
“So those who committed horrendous crimes remain condemned in prisons yet death penalty is still part of our law. Capital punishment offences are increasing, yet capital punishment is not enforced when imposed by the court. Our criminal laws are not working; they are not being enforced. So our criminal laws are now sacked of their deterrent quotient; they don’t deter anymore.”
Ogunye said the argument of parental failure was trite and that any criminally-minded children could easily be checked if the laws were “rigidly, equally and unflaggingly enforced.”
He said, “Human beings in certain respects will behave no better than animals. If people are left to their own designs, they will commit all sorts of crimes. What should hold them in check is the knowledge that if you commit a crime, you will be caught and if you’re caught you will be dealt with according to the law.
“If we enforce our criminal and anti-corruption laws in the way we should enforce them, there will be peace in society. People will say there is a high rate of unemployment. But why are they not causing revolution? Why can’t they turn themselves into a force to overwhelm the state? It is only crime they can channel their energy to because largely people go away with crime in this country.”
The lawyer maintained that proper enforcement of criminal laws would make a big difference, but those saddled with the responsibility “largely themselves are complicit; so they don’t care.”
He added, “We can say parents have failed to give their children education and moral training but those children doing ritual killings have moral compulsion to realise that what they are doing is bad. That is why they hide it. So it was not because of the absence of morality that made them do it, it was because they thought they could do it and get away with it.
“Part of the problem is that those who are called upon to enforce the law and those who took it upon themselves to govern society are themselves a problem to society. That is why they are not passionate about this incident.”
A professor of sociology, Layi Olurode, stated that societies set goals expected of everybody to live up to but in some cases, the institutional means of achieving those goals were in short supply.
According to him, people would generally embrace the goals without being adequately prepared for “institutional means” to attain them so they set their own means of achieving the goals.
“In such a case, if there is a reasonable percentage of youths or adults that have accepted those societal goals but are ill-prepared or ill-equipped to achieve those goals, then deviation sets in,” Olurode explained.
The scholar also lamented that many youths believed in the myth of quick wealth and corruption-induced overnight affluence at the expense of embracing logical and scientific means to success.
Olurode stated that several young people had been cut off from civilisation and could not be led into the science of development, adding that most of them were sent out early in life to fend for themselves.
To fix this laxity, the sociologist urged the government to empower poor parents so that children would not miss proper socialisation early in life and go astray.
He said, “Let’s return to a robust system of socialisation where everybody will be getting social protection that will take care of the majority of the citizens. We have failed as a country. I have read books on economics and commerce to look for where rituals can be performed to make money. Can you really do rituals and become rich? Once there is no science to control the world in which we live, some people will be living under a myth.
“This mythical damnation of life seems to have become acceptable to them because it bridges the stages in life through which they can make money. They don’t believe that as software engineers they can make a lot of money. They don’t believe that if you do your work, become a professional, a medical doctor, an engineer, a lawyer or a celebrated media person you can make money.
“They are just looking for ways to cut corners. They believe that politicians also cut corners. Some of them just want to make money for a year or two. I even learnt there are some parents who form an association of mothers of omoologo (star children).”
However, the General Secretary, Traditional Religion Worshipers’ Association in Oyo State, Dr Femi Fakayode, claimed that money ritual didn’t have its root in the traditional religious belief.
“What we believe in Africa Traditional Religion is that one has to work hard and if you need spiritual assistance, you need to be prayerful and make sacrifices with animals such as pigeons,” he insisted. “Using human beings for money rituals has no connection with Yoruba traditional religion.”
Fakayode partly blamed the factors aiding ritual killings on representations in some Nollywood movies, thereby predisposing gullible viewers to practicalise what they watched.
He added, “We have been urging the government for a long time to censor these movies. A society cannot be good except the people and the governments do the right thing.”
On his part, the Executive Director, National Film and Video Censors Board, Adedayo Thomas, said no movie censored or classified by the board glorified ritual killings for making wealth.
He stated that in instances where the theme revolved around money ritual, the moral lesson at the end of the movie ultimately preached against the act.
The NFVCB director, however, differed with the claim that money ritual had no base in the traditional belief.
Thomas said, “When we were growing up, we heard people say money ritual. Do we ignore that it does not exist when the instinct has been created? We cannot ignore it because we met it. Creativity has to do with history. It is a recreation of instinct in a different manner.
“Classification of films ranges from 12, 13, 15, 16 and 18 and we even recommend parental guide in some cases. We monitor all the cinemas. NFVCB has never licensed any film that glorifies ritualism. We also do media literacy which takes us to schools to educate children on moral values.”
He said the board monitored Youtube and some other platforms for live streaming and wrote to Google whenever any negative contents were spotted.
He added, “In most cases they are brought down. But because of technology, by the time a video is brought down by Google, it is already on other platforms whose existence we don’t have the capacity to trace.
“We are not relenting at what we are doing. It is an ongoing process. On another note, the parents have a lot of duties to do. The government won’t come to your house to train your children.
“The basis of morality and cultural upbringing is at home. Parents and guardians have left their duty and pushed it to the government. It is a problem we must look at holistically.
Thomas said uncensored online videos that celebrate prosperity through ritual killings and cyber fraud were being tracked in partnership with the National Broadcasting Commission.
He stated, “For instance if a station shows a musical video that is not supposed to be shown in the afternoon, such station should be closed. We don’t have that mandate but the NBC does. We are partnering the NBC to fashion out a meeting point.”
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