The scenario of the litany of death from the acts of ritualists remind me of the film “Living in bondage” starring the amazing actor Kenneth Okonkwo only for me these real-time rituals have us truly living in bondage and are the real-life blood and organ ripping monster.

Dr Erwin Lutzer, the author of “We will not be silenced” was right when he said, “After God died in the nineteenth century, the man died in the twentieth century. For when God is dead, man becomes an untamed beast.”

It would, therefore, take an individual who considers God as dead to resort to killing another person for money-making rituals.

On February 9, the House of Representatives called on the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to embark on thorough investigations into the rising cases of ritual killings in the country.

On January 22, three teenage suspects and a 21-year-old reportedly killed one Sofiat Kehinde and severed her head, and burnt in a local pot in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The Police Command in Ogun on February 7, reported that one of the suspects confessed that he learnt the act of ritual killings from a video he watched on Facebook.”
We are fast losing count by the day on the numbers of killings of women and girls from the headlines on the BENUE/PLATEAU TRUST: Ritual killing of girls in Jos stirs apprehension among residents

The recent incident stated that of Miss Plagnang Solomon of Congo Russia Community in Jos whose body was found around Rayfield by PRTV and Jennifer Anthony whose body was found in a hotel on Zaria Road, after being declared missing for days.

To other gory confessions titled “How we killed three students, removed, sold breasts for N15 million – Ritual killers narrates

To the outcry of a devastated family member who says “I want justice, says sister of girl beheaded for suspected ritual purposes in Ogun or in the city of Port Harcourt, where a suspected ritual killer was arrested while attempting to sacrifice a nine-year-old girl in the Ibaa community in Emuoha Local Government Area of Rivers State.

In fact, in 2019, Port Harcourt made international headlines in ritual killings with the case of Gracious David-West, Nigeria’s most celebrated ritual killer in recent times. From July to September 2019, David-West killed at least 15 women, mainly in the Rivers State capital city. After his arrest, he confessed to at least 15 murders.

The majority of the most celebrated artists in Nigeria, as of today, are heavily reliant on the drug, videos laden with branding women as sex objects and their lifestyles as appendages of corrupt politicians, whose lives mirror nothing short of reckless pursuit of money through hook or crook.

Consequently, most of the lyrics of their songs unsurprisingly are skewed to the direction of poor values and quick money-making tendencies. What then do you want the youths to do when they are constantly bombarded and captivated by songs that escalate in them the passion for quick money and sudden wealth.

It was John Whitehead who said, “The media do more than affect public opinion, they alter the consciences and worldviews of entire generations”.

If Nigeria would stem the tide of the escalating evil of money rituals among her youths, in particular, stakeholders with conscience, and especially those with superior values must rise with unity of purpose to review, reorganize and rebrand the nations deep into being lessons which means an abject erosion of humanness.

This dark age of ritual killings in Nigeria is almost in comparison to the unprecedented horror witnessed in Gabon in 2008 before the council elections, when a spate of gruesome child murders took a cold turn where thousands of children were found mitigated, murdered day to day, their organs gorged out as a result of ritual killings, families lived in fear, children were no longer safe at school, which raised mob action against the political elites

Every week, mutilated bodies were discovered in the capital Libreville, despite police patrols, and streets quickly empty after nightfall. Anxious parents are keeping a close watch around schools to prevent children from being snatched.

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The murder of children and young adults increased in recent years in the oil-rich central African nation. Campaigners say some Gabonese politicians used the black magic rituals to boost their chances of winning lucrative government posts and elections.

The ritual killing is a pyramid organization with rich enablers at its head who pursue the famous ‘spare parts’ then the recruiters who are middlemen and then the suppliers and sellers who find the innocent victims most of the time females.

It is also a total breakdown of our value system, the desperation birthed by both greed and unemployment, and the abject poverty that has per-versed the country. It is no longer a conversation to be left only to the government. Our value system is in a state of emergency and must be declared as such.

The institutions such as NDLEA must work hand in hand with the traditional institutions, Social networks, and the security agencies to fish out the enablers of this trend, charge them for their offenses, and if found guilty make sure they face the penalties or their actions.

It is not you today doesn’t mean it may not be tomorrow or someone you know or I know, let’s make hay while the sun shines, or else we stand the risk of having our youths and women depopulated by this evil that has plagued our land.