Suspected ritualist arrested
Hmmm........This new report examines the increasingly rampant cases of ritual killings occurring in many parts of Nigeria nowadays.
The spate of killings for ritual purposes is gradually assuming an
alarming rate in Nigeria with little or no effort by concerned
government agencies to checkmate the trend. One would have expected such
pseudoscience acts to be a thing of the past going by increase in
religious activities and in civilization. But murdering people to
appease the deities appears to be on the increase.
These dastardly acts are carried out in a 21 st century, when other
countries of the world are experimenting and advancing in technology.
It is also shocking to know that some acclaimed high and mighty indulge
in ritual killings. For instance, some politicians and government
officials have been accused by arrested suspects and herbalists who
allege that they use human beings for rituals in order to sustain
their affluence as well as remain in positions of power. Investigations
revealed that cases of ritual killings and disappearance of persons are
usually high whenever elections are around the corner.
Just last week, this barbaric act assumed a cannibalistic dimension
following the arrest of a suspected kidnapper alleged to have killed
one of his victims and used his intestines to prepare pepper soup. The
suspect, Roland Peter, according to the Rivers State Commissioner of
Police , Zaki Ahmed, abducted his victim from his house on August 2017,
adding that the suspect was at the verge of eating pepper soup and yam
porridge when the police swooped on him and some accomplices These
vampires hide under different covers to get their victims. For some,
they kidnap their victims from various points , while others who pretend
to be commercial bus drivers, pick unsuspecting commuters at bus-stop
only to take them to their slaughter slabs to carry out what they know
how to do best.
Killings for money ritual
On August 17, 2017 , the lifeless body of the four-year-old girl
was found close to a shrine at 28 Ogbe Close in Iwaya area of Lagos,
with her throat slit. In her case , the toddler who strayed from her
siblings’ watch, on their way from the mosque, was suspected to have
been used for sacrifice on the Ogun shrine which ironically is built in
the same compound with her parents . Till date perpetrators of the
dastardly act are yet to be fished out.
A week earlier, precisely August 20, another lifeless body of an
eight-year-old girl, Chikamso Victory , was found in the apartment of
one Ifeanyi Chukwu Dike (23) at Messiah street , Eliozu area of Port
Harcourt . Helpless and defenseless Victory was not only abducted by
Dike, she was raped before she was killed. As at the time her body was
recovered, some parts had been removed. They included her vagina, eyes,
tongue and breasts which the suspect kept in a polythene bag awaiting
the appropriate time to take them to his contacts. He was however,
arrested by members of a local vigilante group while going to dispose of
the body. But the incident assumed a laughable dimension following
report by the Police that the suspect had disappeared from custody.
Elsewhere in Oyo state, on March 30, 2017 , a suspected ritualist,
Tunde Jimoh, who was arrested by the Police, gave a chilling
description of how he and other members of his gang abducted their
victim, Akintoye Oyeyemi, took him into a deep forest and murdered him
in cold blood. Thereafter, they took the body to a Muslim cleric to
prepare concoction for money rituals for him. At the end of the day, the
wrists, heart and legs were cut off. Luck ran out on the suspect while
on his way to dump the body in the bush. Not too long ago, reports had
it that an evil forest used as ritualists’ den was uncovered in Enugu
state with the recovery of fresh and decomposing human parts . The
nation’s Federal Capital Territory is not speared from the rising trend
of killing for rituals. Late last year, a dismembered body of an
unidentified lady was recovered at the Lower Usuma Dam junction, along
Dutse-Bwari Road . One of her breasts was cut off, while the rest of the
body was cut into two from the abdomen, an indication that the killing
was for ritual.
Badoo ritual killing
In Lagos state, the commercial hub of the country, different
methods are devised by ritualists. One of such was the surge in the
killing of residents by members of a dreaded cult group identified as
Badoo Boys in Ikorodu area of Lagos. So far, over 50 persons have had
their lives snuffed out of them by the perpetrators who were initially
thought to be invisible, until they were decimated by the Police , under
the watch of the new Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Mr
Edgar Imohimi, while he was the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge
of operations.
Before the raid and subsequent arrest of over 200 suspected members
of the cult group by the Police with the support of the Oodua peoples
Congress, OPC local vigilante and the Neighborhood Watch Corps, Badoo
Boys had been unleashing an orgy of killings, during which they used
heavy stones to crush the skulls of their victims. Their modus operandi
included storming victims’ residences while they are asleep. It is
suspected that they usually hypnotize their victims, as none of them had
ever been conscious of their presence. They would, thereafter, smash
heads of their victims with a grinding stone and after which they use a
handkerchief to clean the blood and brain before leaving the scene.
During interrogation, one of the suspects confirmed that each
handkerchief stained with blood was sold for N500,000 . He further
revealed that they were mere errand boys for rich politicians within and
outside Lagos state. But in their case , the blood and semen stained
handkerchief were used to prepare spiritual defence for well to do
Nigerians.
Mad people in disguise
The latest method devised is the feigning of madness by these
criminal elements. Recently in Lagos, some persons who disguised as
lunatics were discovered to be using tunnels as dens for their
activities. Two instances of note were along Lagos-Abeokuta road and Ile
Zik, along Agege Motor road. The latest was an uncovered ritualits’ den
Wednesday , at Challege bus-stop , Mushin, where some suspected members
who posed as lunatics were found with sophisticated phones, four ATM
cards and over 100 syringes with blood stains.
One of the suspects was lynched by a mob while two others were
rescued by policemen from Area ‘D’ command, Mushin. Not too long
Nigerians received with shock, news of a den in Soka village, Oluyole
Local Government area of Oyo state, where about 20 corpses, majority of
which were earlier declared missing by their relatives, were found
while 18 victims were rescued. From all indications, it was obvious that
the den had been existing for long before it was uncovered, following a
heap of victims’ clothes. One of the rescued victims was reported to
have said he was kidnapped in Ogun while attending an interview. The
most celebrated ritual killing appeared to be the notorious Otokoto saga
in Owerri, Imo State where a businessman belonging to a cult was
alleged to have used his apprentice for ritual. The boy’s corpse was
later exhumed at the premises of Otokoto Hotel. It exposed many other
bizarre acts in hotels.
Religious leaders also involved
One would have expected such primitive acts to be going down, going
by the increasing religious groups in the country. Regrettably, some
leaders of religious have been caught in the act. But investigations
have shown that many evil men only use religion as a cover up. They are
never true religious leaders. One of the ready cases that comes to mind
was that of the arrest of a Pastor who allegedly killed a seven-year-old
boy and buried his head where the church’s alter was mounted. This
action was to ensure the influx of members into the church located at
Odokekere/ Odogunyan in Ikorodu area of Lagos state . Elsewhere in Edo
state and Ogun states, some pastors were also arrested over similar
acts. Few months ago, an unidentified woman who left her abode in Sango
Otta area of Ogun in search of spiritual cleansing at the place of a
Muslim cleric popularly called Alfa , in Badagry area of Lagos, ended up
being victim of ritual killing. A 61-year-old landlord, Toafeek
Hassan, who confessed to have slaughtered the woman , was found with her
fresh human head and other body parts which were to be used to prepare
concoction by the alfa Investigation shows that female parts are more
in demand than their male counterparts. This is because of what was
described as the potency of some parts like the breasts and lower
private parts in money rituals and other purposes by herbalists and
occult groups.
Ritual used to elongate life —suspect
One of the herbalists who spoke with Vanguard at the State Criminal
Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIID , Oseni Bello,
admitted to be preparing concoction with human body parts but said he
was not involved in the killings. Oseni disclosed that some of the
rituals were done to elongate lives . He added that the heart was used
to prepare concoction for boldness and fear. He stated further that
virgins and babies on the other hand , were used by some politicians
and government officials for ritual purposes as their blood is said
to be used to elongate the user’s life span as well as fortify them
against spiritual attacks. These are some of the reasons, he said,
killings for rituals are on the increase.
A particular case in mind was that of a South-West politician
alleged to have been caught by his driver with a dissected day-old baby
whose blood he was drinking. The incident as reported two years ago,
occurred inside a bush, while the driver was taking his boss (names
withheld) to a function. Half way into the journey, the politician was
said to have ordered his driver to pull over. He thereafter, alighted
and headed for a bush with a promise to be back. Having waited without
any sight of his boss, the ignorant and curious driver reportedly
went in search for him,only to meet him stark naked and pouring the
blood of a dissected baby into his mouth.
Barely two weeks later, the driver reportedly died under
mysterious circumstance. The event that occurred before his death was
related by a Pastor friend whom the deceased confided in before his
demise. The lust for money and power drives these people into ritual
killings. While some kill to achieve this unfathomable dream, others
resort to digging graves and removing needed human parts for ritual
purpose. Saturday Vanguard scooped that most guards at cemeteries
connive with agents to sell human parts. It was learnt that if a fresh
human head is needed, an agent will contact some cemetery workers
ahead. In this case, the cemetery official will be on the look out for
fresh dead bodies, preferably those of Muslims who are usually buried
within 24 hours after death. Immediately the body is interred, they
exhume the body at night, cut off the needed parts and place the body
back in the grave.
Human parts for sale
Those who patronize cemetery officials are usually herbalists,
herbal traders and even prominent Nigerians who usually use middle men.
Surprisingly, human parts are sold in some markets in Nigeria. We
gathered that a fresh human head could go for N60,000 and above, while a
skull is sold for N20,000. Fresh legs are sold for N30,000 each while a
decomposed leg is sold for N20,000. A fresh finger is sold for N5,000
each while the decomposed is sold for 3,000. Fresh intestines are sold
for N20,000 while dry ones are sold for N5000. Pieces of fresh bones are
sold for N2,000 and above.
Public react
Reacting to the upsurge , the president, Association of Industrial
Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria , AISSON Dr. Ona. Ekhomu
called on the Nigeria Police to set up Special Ritual Murder Squads in
various State Commands to focus on the investigation, detection, arrest
and prosecution of ritual killers. He said that the high incidence of
serial ritual killings demands an urgent action at the level of the
police high command.
According to the first chartered security professional in West
Africa, citizens were rapidly losing faith in the ability of the police
agency to detect and punish ritual killers.
This, he said was responsible for the increase in lynching of
suspects as members of the public resort to jungle justice to get
redress for the heinous murders. Said he: “The conscience of
Nigerians should be troubled by reports of recent ritual murders
including that of one-year-old Success lme in Calabar whose heart was
ripped out from her small body for ritual purposes and was discovered in
a Church along with other items for occult rituals.
"There is also the case of Pastor Samuel Okpara in Ahoada East
LGA of Imo State who was kidnapped, killed and cannibalized by
ritualists. The pastor was reportedly beheaded and his liver and
intestines used for pepper soup and plantain porridge. What a horrific
occurrence?”
He also decried the excesses of the Baddoo murder cult in Ikorodu
Lagos State, saying it was a direct challenge to the Police. Economic
recession in the land is not a license to commit ritual murder.
"Impunity encourages ritualists to commit murders because they
believe they will not be apprehended or punished. I advise Nigerians
against late night outings because if a vehicular breaks down one could
fall victim of kidnap by ritualists.
"Commuters should always write down the identification markings
of public conveyance vehicles which they enter and make phone calls to
loved ones to pass on the information. Because ritual murderers always
wish to be unidentified.
"They want to kill people, but don’t wish to be apprehended.
Once information about them has been passed on to someone else, it
becomes difficult for them to do evil”.
Nigerians should also assess public transport vehicles before boarding in order not to board the
“wrong bus. Likewise, women are advised to carry whistles on them in
order to raise an alarm if there is an attempt to abduct them”.
On his part, the national Coordinator, Network on Police Reform in
Nigeria , NOPRIN Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, attributted the rise in cases
of killing for ritual to collapse in moral values
“It is also caused by, ignorance and superstition, the
inordinate quest and pursuit of quick wealth and lack of effective
punishment system. In a way, poverty and unemployment may also be a risk
factor. If Nigerians have equal opportunities to earn income in
legitimate ways, there will definitely be reduction in such abominable
crimes like humans killing fellow humans for ritual.”
Also baring his opinion on the matter, Treasurer of the Action
Democratic Party , Cross River State Chapter, Offiong Okon, in a recent
interview, advised that:
“Before a church is established, government should carry out
investigation before license is granted because many of the church
leaders and founders are ritualists, acting in the capacity of being
Pastors.”
“Government should investigate the Pastors and checkmate their
activities because what they do under the cover of being a religious
leader.”
****
Culled from: Vanguard
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