Surge In Ritual Killings In Our Land: Any Antidote? By Victor Ezeja

Criminal activities and man’s inhumanity to man have
continued to take different dimensions every day.
Various media in different parts of the globe have
become awash with reports of various types of killings
caused by various factors such as political and ethnic
violence, religious extremism, banditry, cult war and
ritual acts.
While we read in papers, social media, and watch on
television screens, horrible reports of Boko Haram
killings in different parts of the North, ritual killings are
becoming a recurring incident, especially in different
parts of Southern Nigeria. Though the act of killing for
ritual purposes has existed for a long time, the rate at
which the act is perpetrated nowadays is becoming
alarming.
In this horrible act, victims are abducted and taken to
an isolated area where they are gruesomely murdered
and have their sensitive body parts like: sexual organs,
head, tongue, eyes, breast, fingers, etc. cut off and taken
away for ritual purposes. According to a report by
Punch newspaper of 27th March, 2014, a forest in Soka,
Ibadan, Oyo state, was discovered where ritualists hack
their victims to death. Many decomposing bodies were
found in the forest.
While some victims are forcefully abducted, some are
either drugged or charmed before being taken away.
Reportedly, several cases have shown that this horrible
practice is usually done inside thick forests or in
isolated areas where it will be difficult for people to
notice it. Some of the syndicates of this dreadful
practice can act as agents for some rich people, who
urge them to kill people and collect their sensitive body
parts for them in return for huge sums of money, while
some are on their own killing people secretly and selling
their body parts to make money. For instance, in the
case of one 30 year old woman, Mabel Udaya who was
gruesomely murdered in Okpo community, Enugu state
on 26th September, 2013, it was alleged that her
murderers were promised N5 million each on delivery.
Traditionalists are of the opinion that people engage in
this heinous act for fame, power and riches. To me, the
genesis of this atrocity is simply hinged on two factors:
one is our religious belief and superstitions and, two,
poverty. There is this popular belief in supernatural
influence on human affairs and that ritual sacrifices with
human blood and body parts are so effective. And thus
can help in gaining material fortunes and power. Given
this belief and the excruciating poverty level in the land,
people engage in ritual murder, believing to make money
quickly.
Some traditions in the past, indulged in the use of
human beings as sacrifice while instituting a personal
or community oracle, believing that such oracle would
be powerful to solve their problems, while some believed
(and maintain it to a certain extent till today) in using
human heads to bury a great man. These are traditional
dogmas and superstitions which have conditioned
people mind to believe and, coupled with the increasing
materialistic tendency of the people, have led to
indiscriminate killing of people for such purposes.
Ritual killings do not exist only in Nigeria, but in other
parts of Africa who share similar cultural disposition. It
was reported sometime in the media that before a major
house is erected in some parts of Uganda, a child had
to be sacrificed.
According to reports, this act leads to the death of
many Nigerians in the southern part every year. What
makes it a difficult issue to handle is the fact the belief
in ritual sacrifice is ingrained in the people’s cultural
belief system.
To stem the tide of this negative trend in our society,
we need a total moral/ethical renaissance especially on
the part of our youths. There is a need for people to
imbibe sound moral virtues and shun vices that results
from materialistic mentality. In this moral/ethical
regeneration, parents should play pivotal roles in
inculcating sound moral values in their wards and
equally be cautious of the utterances they make toward
their children already working, who are yet to get rich.
To prove my point here, in one of the villages in my
town, one Mrs. Caroline sometime in 2003, suddenly
engaged her son who just came home from Lagos in a
verbal attack. She chided her son for having not made
money even by crooked means, thereby allowing her
wallow in poverty. This infuriated the son who left the
village and went back to Lagos to join a money ritual
cult. He was asked to kill his mother for the purpose,
but he could not succeed, after several attempts
through magical means and later became mad.
Security agencies like police should step up their efforts
at investigation, apprehension and subsequent
prosecution of suspects to serve as deterrent to others
who may try to indulge in the act. They should not
delay in the prosecution and equally shun every human
element that attempts to stall prosecution of such
crime. For instance, in a current case of ritual murder of
a poor couple in a community in Enugu state on 6th of
February, 2014, it is alleged that some influential
members of the community who are probably indirectly
involved in the act, are making efforts to frustrate
prosecution of the case by police.
Also, good leadership by governments in Africa which
will grant better access to quality education and
economic empowerment is needed. Quality education
will reduce the level of ignorance and belief in
superstitions by the people. Good education will equally
make people to have broad mindsets that will enable
them devise genuine ways of making money to earn a
good living instead of believing in ritual as the only way
to easily acquire wealth.
There is also a need for worldwide campaign against
ritual killings in Africa to help change people’s
orientation about it.

Victor Ezeja, writes from Onitsha, Anambra state
Vickoly4life@gmail.com.