A top human rights activist in Nigeria has said that the rising cases of ritual murders by youths trying to get rich quick is a phenomenon that can be curtailed.
Chief Patrick Osagie Eholor, while speaking with Jungle-Journalist.Com, expressed displeasure about the menace, and enumerated various ways of educating the populace, as well as make tough laws that will force the practitioners have a rethink and end the abominable practice.
Hear him: “You don’t blame a child if you don’t teach a child the difference between right and wrong. What has been happening is that a lot of young people don’t want to believe that hard work pays anymore. They now believe in Yahoo and Yahoo Plus. We have seen recently when a very young man plucked out his girlfriend’s eyes for money rituals. We have seen 16, 17 and 18 year olds cut off the head of a girl and put it in a pot because they were taught on the internet how they can make money by doing that. We have seen where 11 year olds were arrested in Lagos because of the funny smell coming from their bags. They were going for rituals instead of school.
“The issue of ritual killing is abnormal, it’s uncivilized, it’s barbaric.
“I don’t want to think that the letter p is a problem to us as country. Let us start from p-president, p-pastor, p-politicians, then go back to p, the people. So you cannot understand what is going on. The Government has failed us, the churches have failed us, and the churches are not speaking out.
“You go to some churches and you see these Yahoo boys pouring money on the pastor and on the altar. Let it rain money in the church of God. How can you do that and the people are watching?
“You have the Minister of Information, and the Commissioners, who cannot come out and educate people, and tell them that human blood don’t turn to money.
“They did not go after herbalists who concoct these stories that human blood makes one rich. Then pastors who are supposed to condemn it, are concerned about tithe, seed and offering. The imams who should talk about it are preaching hate and division, so the country is divided.
“The President who should be taking actions don’t even know what to do. What a shame.
“The government has to go after the ritualists, they have to go after the herbalists who give them the belief that human blood or the parts of a woman can be made to turn into money. Nigerians are people who can be very fanatic. I remember the days of drugs. They went into it so much that the Idiagbon/Buhari government then enacted a law that was very severe. It was the same thing in the days of prostitution. They also has to make those severe laws. It’s more like a circle, something that is trending.
“So am saying that if the government comes out-the Minister of Information, the Commissioners of information in the various states, Houses of Assembly, Representatives and Senate enact a very serious law, and also provide these children opportunities to engage them gainfully, these things will phase out. It revolves, and by making tough laws, it’s time will end.
“I also think there should be more education. We are losing our women very fast to this nonsense. They are cutting their breasts, their clitoris, their body parts. We have heard of herbalists going to cemetery to dig human parts for money rituals. It is not true that blood turns to money. The Bible which I have read never said that, neither has science said that. So it’s a disgrace that the government is not doing enough, and the police who are supposed to be doing their work are doing nothing.
“The Police PROs are supposed to be educating the people but they just go after the yahoo Boys, collect money from them”, he stated.