The rising menace of human blood rituals for success has increasingly occupied the news for quite a while now.
The worrisome development has led to the call for arrest of native doctors who recommend human sacrifice as a mean to wealth.
JungleJournalist.Com over the weekend, ran into Dr Segun Izebokun, an African traditional herbal doctor.
Dr Segun is a core herbalist, who uses leaves, roots, fruits, flowers and other parts of plants to treat illnesses.
He also believes that the spiritual realm is almost wholly responsible for the conditions of humans on earth, and says that, unless the spirits speak on what is wrong with an individual, no one can treat him or her. Therefore, he must consult oracles and use the ‘ifa’ or ‘afa’ system to check out what a man or woman must do to solve the problem.
But Dr Segun also believes that poverty or lack of money is a type of disease that should also be treated.
Speaking with Jungle-Journalist.Com, the traditional doctor frowns at the alarming practice of ‘Yahoo boys’, who kill fellow humans in order to make money and get rich.
According to him, ritual sacrifice is a necessity in the solving of problems, but he says that ritual sacrifice involving humans is an abomination, an evil that must be stopped immediately. Only animals can be used for sacrifice in order to solve problems.
Dr Segun believes that every kind of disease, poverty, lack and limitations, even death can be ‘cured’ using spiritual consultations and herbs.
“I believe in herbs to help people. If someone is ill, I have so many different methods of finding out exactly what is wrong with that person. It may be possible that the individual has a spiritual wife in the river, or that witches and wizards are after the person, we can solve the problem.
“Number two, if for instance, you want to get success, you don’t need to kill people or shed innocent blood. We can help you to get the success you desire”, he stated.
He further stated that ritual killing is evil “the person you want to kill, if it’s your son or daughter, will you be happy? In our tradition as Edo people, we don’t engage in such evil human rituals, it’s visitors and strangers in our midst that do this.
“We have our own methods to make your way to open. For example, we can do Orunmila for the person and everything about his or her destiny will begin to function well. If someone wants to make quick money, and is involved in business, we have what we can do for you to make your business boom.
“We have what we call ‘Irakhue’ in Benin. It’s a type of soap that brings success to you. If you also have anything blocking your way and making it impossible for you to make success, we have ways through which we can block that thing. That is a very easy way to make money and is far better than killing people.”
On the argument that blood money ritual does not attract wealth, the herbal spiritualist doctor said;
“Yes, human head, private parts, human parts can truly be used to invoke money, but it’s not good. It’s a demonic method of making money and it has very terrible consequences on the person who is involved. Even the native doctor that performed the ritual has evil consequences awaiting him. You can never run away from nature and karma. When you take somebody’s blood to get what you want, who told you that your own blood is safe? Your own blood must be required from you too.
“It’s something I can never engage in. I have children, and I cannot imagine somebody kidnapping and killing my children to invoke money! God forbid.
How ‘Yahoo Blood Money’ works
“When you kill someone in order to make money, you get a lot of money, but that is not success. What you have ended up doing is to drag the success of your generations, of your children and children’s children forward, for your own little selfish ends. So in the future, the very near future from the time you make that money, your whole life will become a horror. It does not only end there. Your family members begin to suffer terrible consequences, and people will begin to say that the family is cursed.
Why ‘Cut soap for me’ is better than human sacrifice
“The first step to take when you need success in life is to consult the oracle. When I have consulted the oracle, I will know if there is anything blocking your success, then I will find out how to block it. There are so many things that can be causing a man not to succeed, including spiritual husband or wife, family curse, karma or repercussion for wrongs you did in the past, etc.
“So after consulting the oracle, I will be instructed by the oracle the exact steps to take to solve the problem.
“Many times, we will prepare soap for you. Some soap is for washing off bad omen that has been following you. Some are for attracting customers or good fortunes to you. There are also soap for blocking evil hands that are punishing somebody and frustrating him or her.
“Your soap is made up of black African soap and a combination of different herbs or roots. Each root has a function to serve in your life.
“This is after you have done all the appeasement to be done. If two friends are in need of money and visit me, I will consult and solve their problems. The issue is that what may work for friend one may not work for friend two. While one person may only need kolanut to give to a deity, or a cock, the second may be required to kill a ram, or even take items to the river to seek favour from the river Deities. So everybody’s destiny is different from the other.
“But, nobody should expect huge pouring of wealth into his or her life in an instant. Your success will come gradually, but it will surely come. Sometimes, you cannot get a promotion at work, or you are not getting contracts as a business person. Or you are not making sales in your shop. But once we work for you, once the oracle tells us what you need to do and you do them, you can get suddenly promoted or even transferred to a better office.
“You can begin to get numerous contracts or make very impressive sales in your shop or business. All your success that was tied down in the past will suddenly be lose and what you have not gained will all begin to come.
Advise for young people
“They should leave evil. They should not kill other people to make wealth. It must visit your future, whether you do good or you do evil.
“In Edo, we believe in different Deities whose jobs are to help humans, and you cannot engage in human blood rituals when you have the Deities to take care of your concerns. In the different parts of Edo, human ritual is an abomination. In Ovia for instance, anybody who do such a thing will die. In Okuahie, we don’t do that. In Usen, Ede, the don’t do that. They always know that the repercussions are very grave and won’t even think about such things.
“Anybody who try it will surely die. That is why we say in our area, we don’t try such a thing.
“Rituals can be performed with dogs, goats, rams, and sometimes pigs, he-goat, rabbit, and other animals. Never humans.
“For example, if you are aspiring to be a governor, we will consult, and if Orunmila ask you to bring a goat to get what you want, you do that. If you do that sacrifice, the Governor’s office must surely get to you.
“Or you want to serve Sango. He can demand cock, ram or goat from you in order to favour you. If you do what the Gods want, you must be successful in your field.