New Telegraph

‘Money ritual is a scam, part of 419 business’

There have been countless phenomenal revelations indicating the plunging depth of societal decadence in Nigeria and by extension, Africa; but a trend that comes with grave repercussions for the society is the rising spate of ritual killings. In this report, ADEYINKA ADENIJI focuses on the rising spate of ritual killings and future of Nigerian youths

Though there are different shades of opinions by wellmeaning Nigerians on the veracity of claims to the existence of anything like money-making rituals; evidence abounds that there are some groups of Nigerians, who believe in the possibility of helping their fortune through money ritualism. Every day in the news, readers are greeted with different cases of ritual related killings.

Everywhere across the country, the police authorities’ parade people arrested with human parts. Many of them confess to sourcing the parts for money ritual purposes. On June 2, 2019, the remains of a newly-wedded Odo-Owa born middleaged man, identified as Kayode, was found in his pool of blood around the Flower Garden area, Ilorin, Kwara State, dismembered. His entire gastrointestinal tract, also known as the digestive tract, had been removed. Someone who saw him a few minutes earlier with an unidentified passenger brought his blood-stained cloth to his young wife.

Kayode’s case was about the third case of suspected ritual killing among Okada riders in Ilorin for the week. On February 1, 2018, a 25-year-old man was arrested by men of the Nigerian Police, Ogun State Command, in possession of a human head, the suspect confessed upon interrogation by the police that a herbalist had requested a human skull from him and his friend for money-making rituals. October 8, 2021, In Ibadan, Oyo State, operatives from the Mapo Divisional Police Headquarters arrested one Moruf Ganiyu for the possession of a human head.

The suspect denied killing anyone, but confessed to raiding burial sites where he severed the head from a buried body. October 5, 2020, the DPO of Sotubo division, Sagamu, Ogun State, SP Samuel Adefolalu, led a team of detectives who arrested a 20-year-old man identified as Simon in his hiding place around Shimawa.

Simon had fled Ibadan after he was declared wanted by the Oyo State Police Command in respect of the murder, a few days earlier, of a 12-year-old boy, after the arrest of other accomplices. His arrest, according to the Ogun State PPRO, Abimbola Oyeyemi, followed information received by the police that a wanted killer from Oyo State was hiding within the Shimawa locality.

The menace cuts across regions, religion, sex and vocation, but the recent increase in the involvement of youths on ritual killing related issues has also been a source of great worry. An example of youth involvement in money ritual is the gruesome murder of Rofiat Kehinde, the Idi-Ape, Ogun State teenager, beheaded by her boyfriend, 18-year-old Soliu Majekodunmi, for ritual purposes, in concert with three other minors, precisely points to the distressing depth of an all-acknowledged societal degeneration into the lowest abyss. Paraded with two other teenagers and a 20-year-old, Soliu, who claimed to have learnt how to concoct burnt human skulls, with other fetish prescriptions into magical wealth potions in a Facebook video, was seen with the half-burnt skull of Sofia, in early February. Unconfirmed reports have it that there is another category of ritually inclined persons, who seek human parts for other reasons other than wealth.

Some others only required the syphoning or sprinkling of human blood. On January 5, 2022, three teenagers were charged with attempted ritual killings by the Bayelsa Police Command. Endeley Comfort, 13, was rescued from three ritually inclined teenagers who had kidnapped and hypnotised her before cutting her fingers with a sharp object and robbing her blood. According to the Command’s spokesperson, Asinim Butswat, the suspects; Emomotimi Magbisa, Perebi Aweke and Eke Prince, all aged 15, have been arrested by the police. In addition to the numerous ritual killings cases reported daily in the media, ritual sites and ritualists’ dens were also uncovered.

Major among these sites are the Okija shrine, and the various ‘baby factories’ scattered all over the country. Otherwise called Agwugwu Akpu, the shrine in Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State, which became popular in 2004, had dozens of skulls and other body parts; both dry and blood dripping littered its shrine.

Reports have it that Okija was originally meant to be a mediation chamber. Comrade Chris Okwuosa, an indigene of the town, told journalists how the heaps of heads and other body parts at Okija came about. He said in the interview, that the deity of Okija attracted the remains of people found to have died as a result of breaking their oath with the Ogwugwu. According to Okwuosa, the priests were reported to have demanded the remains of individuals perceived to have died in connection with oaths sworn at the shrines to be dumped at the shrine. A total of 10 registers of names were reportedly discovered containing some influential names.

But the reasons for the visitation of those whose names appeared on the register remain unclear. Among other locations suspected to be ritualist stock markets, which were also raided with startling outcomes is the Soka area in Ibadan. Soka was relatively unknown until the shocking revelation of a vast compound of ritual killers’ den, where scores of abductees were rescued from ‘awaiting the death’ list of ritual murderers. Gory images of mortars used in pounding live babies were shown to reporters. Enfeebled men and women of different ages were deliberately left unfed to starve to death and their body parts butchered and sold to ‘clients.’

The growing rate of ritual murder related cases notwithstanding, some observers believe that innocent human lives were merely being destroyed and wasted in the name of ritualism for money. Because according to them, there is nothing like money ritualism. Evangelist Toso Oshofa, Shepherd- in-Charge, Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), International Headquarters, Ketu, Lagos, while commenting over the menace of ritual killings blamed impatience, bad governance, widespread corruption as causes of the rising spate of greedy materialism among the youths.

He not only disavowed the possibility of any ritual involving human life or blood, through which one may get a magical wealth, the clergyman also dissociated his Church, the CCC, from any acts of ritualism, whether of human or animal part, declaring that there was nothing like ritual money.

“There is nothing on the earth called money ritualism. As for me and my family and church, we believe in the Bible. We don’t believe in ritualism. Any form of money ritualism whether through Babalawo or voodooism, all that you have is idolatry, which the Bible condemns…” He added that in the CCC, all they use are sponge, soap, perfume, oil and water; all they ask of the faithful and after prayers rendered on them are returned to the faithful to help attract favour, increase patronage and mercy from people. National Coordinator, Democracy Vanguard (DV), Adeola Soetan, a cultural enthusiast and independent observer also concurs that the issue of ritual money is not real and added further that the phenomenon is nothing but a part “419” scheme.

“I don’t believe there is anything like a ritual for money. It is based on the activities of certain criminals to just be fast. “I have been to prison, during our student’s union days, we were detained during the military regime and were fortunate to meet a son of these so-called ritualists and other criminals who are serving jail terms. We had the opportunity to discuss with them among other criminals. Why they committed such crimes and their experiences. And without mincing words, they told us that there was nothing called a ritual for money. “And there was a man who was a ‘Babalawo’ from a village near Ile-Ife, we called the man “Baba Saudi”.

He was in detention with about 9 others, he was actually from Garage Olode. The man told us that they were just doing their “419” jobs. He said: “If he had done money ritual, he would not sit down in Garage Olode, near Ife, suffering himself. If he knew how to do ritual for money, he would have done it for himself and family.” Adeola explains further that the scheme is a ploy by advance fee fraudsters to ‘discharge’ their victims. “What is called ritual money is a step in 419.

“When they pick somebody that they want to do ritual money for, they start from a lower level, they start to give them concoctions and also make some sacrifices. Along the line when their victims, their stupid victims, would have spent so much, and in an attempt to discharge the victims, as they didn’t have anything to do with them, they will now tell them to bring human parts. And, as Baba Saudi said, he never knew that the young man from Lagos, who they are still scamming, who is also a part of the criminal group that were suspects and detained in Ilesa prison, said they never thought in their wild imagination that somebody could go and kill a young boy. “You know… somebody killed a friend’s son in primary school and he brought his head, and they were shocked because they didn’t have anything to do with the head…

They thought the guy (their victim) would just walk away and that would be the end of the pact and they would enjoy his loot. “It is imagination from cultural stupidity. “So, there’s nothing, I repeat, there is nothing like a money ritual. It is a scam. It is part of 419 business, their trick is to swindle stupid persons looking for money at all cost and doesn’t want to work for money. But a lot of people do not know.” Soetan also believe that the media, particularly those in the electronic media, has a role to play in sensitising the populace against believing in money rituals.

“I appeal to the media, particularly the electronic media, to promote this as corporate social responsibility for people to know there is nothing called ritual money. “I will advise anyone, no matter the stress, no matter our condition, not to ever dare the lazy way of looking for money. Ritualisation of wealth? There is nothing like that. And there is nothing like the ritualisation of poverty.” Also speaking on the scourge of greed inspired killings in recent times, is the Awise of Lagos, Chief Ifashola Savage, on his part, he also aligned with others in the impossibility of getting rich through human sacrifices.

The respected Ifa priest discountenanced the concept of money ritualism in the Ifa setting. “Human sacrifice is alien to Ifa. There is ‘awure’, which brings increased patronage to your business. There is also ‘eyonu’, which attracts mercy and compassion to the wearer. “No true Babalawo will ask you for a human body part as an ingredient for sacrifice.

What they ask for are fishes and rats.” When asked if there is any way possible by man to make their destined fortunes through any terrestrial manipulation of forces in a money ritual, Savage said: “I have been an Ifa Priest for over 50 years, I don’t know anything about Osole, all I know is “Awure”, a magical potion or soap that attracts good luck and boosts patronage “Aworo”, pulls the crowd while “Eyonu” is believed to be potent in attracting compassion and mercy. An Islamic scholar, Sheikh Isiaq Atejidini Adebeshin, also discarded the idea of money ritual through the use of human parts or blood.

The Ogun State based Arabic teacher is also of the opinion that hard work, combined with relevant skills and the right connections are the best ingredients on the recipe of fortune or wealth, saying “there is nothing like ritual money.” He however affirmed that supplication could be offered to Allah, who grants success, compassion and divinely arrange connection with the right people. “Ritual money is not real.

There is no basis for it in the Quran, he reiterated. True believers of Allah must always learn to wait for Him “Any wealth that comes through violence and killing is not of God, he said, warning that “Allah detests killings.” Sheikh Isiaq who spoke in Yoruba said: “Excessive craving for riches is indeed the beginning of all troubles, and those who are fixated on it by attempting to circumvent hard work, diligence and honesty have always ended in regrets. Money ritualists live discounted lives in a manner that appears to make supposedly future value or unearned wealth available magically.”

Adebeshin’s position aligns with the admonition of the Apostle Paul, in the Christian scriptures, where he posited that excessive craving for riches is indeed the beginning of all troubles, and those who are fixated on it by attempting to circumvent hard work, diligence and honesty have always ended in self-destruction.

However, despite refutations by prominent religious leaders, including notable Yoruba traditional Ifa priests and other native diviners, of the possibility of the existence of such rituals that bring about a magical wealth; money rituals, going by the numerous evidence of widely unverified repercussions as aftermaths or recoils from greediness, many are not yet persuaded to desist.

Yet it is not uncommon in society to see middle-aged scruffy-looking men and women, roaming the streets and most times deliriously recounting their escapades in efforts at getting rich the quick way. Lives have been lost and glories cut short due to impatience and many glories truncated as a result of an incontinent desire for sudden wealth. Those who desire wealth the illicit way lead short-changed lives.

In a manner that appears to make supposed future value or unearned wealth available instantly, some youths out of greediness and covetousness subject themselves to various manners of deadly repercussion. Lives have been lost and glories cut short due to impatience and many glories truncated as a result of an incontinent desire for sudden wealth through ritualism. Parental supervision from morally upright adults is needed to guide to a proper mentoring model in society. The Media and relevant agencies are enjoined to rise to the occasion and arrest the ugly frenzy that may impose ritualists and heinous killers as leaders in the nearest future.

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