By Casmir Igbokwe
Some Africans, especially Nigerians, have awful ways of doing certain things. Some always want to be faster than their shadows. At the filling stations, we want to jump queues and be the first to be attended to. On the road, we usually don’t want to give the other road user any chance to go before us. And generally in life, some want to circumvent nature by going to native doctors to prepare charms that will make them richer, invincible or more powerful than every other person.
The trending news now is the killing of Miss Oluwabamise Ayanwole, 22, on February 26, 2022. This young lady who was a fashion designer reportedly boarded a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) belonging to the Lagos State Government on the fateful day at 7pm. The bus was heading for Oshodi from Ajah. Along the way, Oluwabamise felt uneasy about the characters she met in the bus. She started sending out messages and had live conversation with two of her friends about what she noticed in the bus. Her worst fears happened as her assailants killed her and dumped her dismembered body on Carter Bridge by Ogogoro Community on Lagos Island.
It took almost one week before operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested the driver of the bus, Andrew Nice, in his hideout at Ososa in Ogun State. He has been remanded in custody. Although he denied having a hand in the death of the young lady, he will have to prove it beyond reasonable doubt before a court of law.
Besides, two kids were reported missing in Ijesha area of Lagos last week. The four-year-old kids, Wasiu Dauda and Al-Ameen Ibrahim, were discovered missing about two hours after they returned from school on Friday. A man allegedly lured them with biscuits while they were playing and took them away in a tricycle. This happened some hours after residents of Sangotedo in Lagos nabbed a dispatch rider with a baby in his courier box.
Ritual killings did not start today in Nigeria. In 2017, law enforcement agents arrested over 200 hoodlums called Badoo boys in Ikorodu, Lagos. These boys reportedly killed over 50 people and they specialized in crushing the heads of their victims for ritual purposes. One of the boys confessed during interrogation that they were errand boys for rich politicians and that they sold each handkerchief stained with the blood of their victims for N500,000.
In 2019, the police arrested one Gracious David-West in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, for alleged ritual killings. Before his arrest, the man was said to have confessed to have killed about 15 women for rituals in Port Harcourt. In Ogun State, local vigilance group arrested four teenage boys who allegedly killed a young lady, Sofiat Kehinde, 20, for money-making ritual last January. Luck ran out on them when they made attempts to burn the severed head of the lady. They have been charged to court.
The case of Iniobong Umoren killed last year in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, is another pathetic one. One Uduak Akpan allegedly lured the job-seeking Iniobong under the guise of interviewing her for a job, only to kill her and bury her in a shallow grave in his compound. The suspicion is that the murder was ritual-related.
There is usually an upsurge in ritual killings each time we approach a major election year. There is a general election next year. Some of our politicians are desperate to win at all costs. They have reposed their trust in juju, fake clerics and all such nonsense to defeat their opponents. At greater risk of ritual killings these days are women, virgins and albinos. Now, I hear that people with bald head like me are also at risk.
It is pure laziness, ignorance and superstition to think that one can just make money or acquire power by killing people. To the best of my knowledge, such an act is not one of the principles of making money. Even if one makes that money that way (but I doubt) it will not last. One way or the other, whoever did it will reap the evil benefits of his actions. The agony of the bereaved families cannot be in vain.
Although poverty and unemployment are some of the reasons pushing people into committing certain atrocities, there cannot be any justification for killing innocent people. The people they killed were not the ones who denied them employment or made them poor. It is barbaric, to say the least.
When you even look at the life of the so-called native doctors preparing these charms, they appear too wretched. And those flocking to them have not asked why the physicians have not healed themselves. It reveals the collapse in our moral values.
It is a pity that we have this high number of ritual cases in a period when we have recorded high number of churches and mosques. The tragedy is that many clerics have abandoned the true word of God to preach prosperity. Salvation and love for God and humanity are no more emphasized. This is partly why many of our youths have gone back to traditional religion these days. Very recently, a certain young man from my town recorded himself insulting Jesus and burning the Bible. He took delight in sharing it on social media.
People should just be careful of their movements these days. Parents should caution their children and monitor their movements in these trying times. On no account should anybody leave the house without informing their loved ones about where they are going. Commuters should try as much as possible to forward the registration number or some other details of a commercial vehicle they are entering to loved ones, in case of any eventuality.
Law enforcement agents should not sit by and wait for reports of rituals to come to their table before they take action. They should take proactive actions by deploying secret police at known black spots for surveillance and intelligence-gathering. Immediately such characters are arrested, they should be made to face the full wrath of the law.
I wonder if the National Orientation Agency is still in existence. For long now, I have not heard nor seen it embark on any serious campaign as before. The NOA should embark of serious campaign against ritual killings in Nigeria. Though it may not eradicate the problem, it will go a long way in pricking the dead conscience of the renegades committing this crime.
Government and other owners of commercial vehicles should endeavour to conduct security checks on all their drivers. They must ensure safety of their buses. Mounting closed circuit or dashboard cameras, especially on the BRT buses, is very essential. Declaring a national emergency on ritual killings has also become very necessary.
As the Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Toby Okechukwu, noted recently, while youths in other serious countries were using science and technology to better their environment, some Nigerian youths busy themselves with ritual killings. Pity!
