- •Traditionalist, cleric, others bare minds on disturbing trend
If their quest to “blow”, as the popular argot goes, is alarming, their resort to diabolical means, including killing fellow human beings to make money, is most worrisome. In this report, GBENGA ADERANTI digs into the attraction to the condemnable practice by youths and ways to stem it.
SUNNY (surname withheld) is a successful electrical contractor, who is loved by all in his Ogun State community.
However, his sudden strange behaviour got people in his neighbourhood worried, recently.
It all began after he suffered loss of memory and could not recognise any of his friends anymore.
His condition worsened when his conversations became indistinct, a situation that drew the empathy of many around him.
On different occasions, he had been overheard saying things like, “I will give you your bag; I will give you your bag,” to nobody in particular.
Suspecting that it could be a spiritual attack, his family members took him to a white garment church, where he underwent spiritual cleansing.
About a week after his spiritual cleansing, Sunny, Sunny, regained his memory and returned to his normal self, to the pleasure of his family.
But they soon became more agitated and curious, after his sickness relapsed.
While they were juggling their brains about the fate that had befallen him, Sunny’s younger brother happened on a calabash filled with a black soap in his room.
It was later discovered that Sunny had embarked on “Bisa Bisa”, a street parlance for money making soap.
Speaking with The Nation, his friend, Tayo, said: “When we saw the soap and calabash in his room, we knew he was into bisa bisa.”
But what could have made a promising young man go into such? Tayo further revealed that Sunny’s problem started when one Akpan, whom he grew up with, visited the neighbourhood in a Camry car.
“Akpan did not accord Sunny any courtesy; in fact, he treated him curtly, to the astonishment of all who knew their antecedents. The reason was that Sunny was doing better than Akpan, who barely finished secondary school,” Tayo said.
According to him, Sunny later found out that Akpan was into internet-related fraud, otherwise known as Yahoo Yahoo. “This is what probably pushed him into “bisa, bisa,” Tayo further explained.
At the time of writing this report, Sunny was still at an undisclosed location in Oyo State, where he was undergoing spiritual treatment.
Like Sunny, Bayo Akande (not real name) cuts a pitiable sight. Those who know him claimed he brought the poor fate upon himself, after getting involved in a money ritual.
No doubt, it came with some dire consequences that have altered the cause of the life of his family members too. His beautiful sister, who lived in the neighbourhood, became a recluse of sorts, as the stigma occasioned by Bayo’s immoral deed became her shadow, following her everywhere.
It was so bad that his family members, including his step-dad who had to sell his house in the area, were forced to relocate to another part of the state.
If Sunny and Bayo are suffering today because of their inordinate ambition for wealth, others have gone to the extreme by killing fellow beings in their quest to make money.
On a daily basis, passersby around the Alagbole area of Ogun State behold in wonderment the spectacle of a young man who harasses women and motorists unprovoked.
The young man, who is probably in his 30s, was said to be doing well until he decided on an infamous journey of money-making ritual.
Desperate to ‘blow’
About a month ago, the video of an unidentified secondary school teenager, whose neck was dripping with blood, went viral online.
He was reported to have escaped death after a failed attempt by his friends to slaughter him for money rituals.
According to the reports, the teenager and his friends were planning to do a money ritual, but while they were on their way in the jungle to see the ritualist, they decided to kill him.
In the process, the teenager, whose neck was partially severed, pretended to be dead and managed to escape before he was eventually rescued.
While he is alive to tell the story, others have not been that lucky.
Sometime in April last year, one Ifeanyi Njoku was arrested in Lagos in connection with the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Precious Okeke.
Njoku’s quest to make money pushed him into the act.
According to reports, a local spiritual practitioner had instructed Njoku to engage in sexual intercourse with Okeke’s lifeless body; and Njoku, desperate, had carried out the directive to the letter for six unbroken days.
The putrefying odour from the decomposing body of the deceased was said to have caused the neighbours raise the alarm.
During interrogation, Njoku confessed to the murder and admitted that his motive was to employ Okeke in a money-making ritual.
In May, a 29-year-old internet fraudster, Amos Olaleye, was arrested by the Police in Lagos for killing his sister for a money ritual.
Shockingly, Olaleye, in his statement to the Police, said: “My mother was the one who took me to a native doctor. He said I would have to sacrifice one of my siblings if I wanted to be successful. He said the one to be sacrificed must be the one I loved most.
“I am into Yahoo business. After hearing from him, it took me months before I could make up my mind on whether to embark on the assignment.”
Read Also: EFCC arrests 62 suspected ‘Yahoo boys’ in Kwara
He further stated that while he was grappling with the thought, his mother kept encouraging him to go ahead and kill his sister, so that they could be rich and end the poverty in the family.
“My mother planned the entire incident by going out to buy poison, which she put in my sister’s food. The native doctor also instructed that I must sleep with my sister’s corpse and suck her vagina before throwing the corpse into a river for the ritual to be completed,” he added.
In a related development, The Nation gathered that a young man in Uromi, Esan North-East in Edo State allegedly used his mother for a money ritual.
His father was said to have warned his wife never to drive the expensive car bought for her by the young man because he was not comfortable with his sudden wealth.
Unfortunately, the woman did not heed the advice, as she died the very day she drove the car.
A close family member told The Nation that “The car the young man bought for his late mum is still parked somewhere; nobody is using it.
“He organised an elaborate burial for his mum, and it was the talk of the town for a very long time. He, thereafter, bought a property, demolished it, and re-built it.
Money Rituals: Myth, reality
While many see the phenomenon of money ritual as a ruse, a cleric, Yemi Olaojo, Pastor of Fellow Citizens Christian Centre, told The Nation that it is real.
He attributed youths’ involvement in money rituals to a major failure in the family.
Olaojo, who said the first contact of socialisation is through parents, made reference to the Biblical injunction, saying, “If the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Olaojo also decried the attitude of some parents who encourage their kids or wards to tread the despicable path in life, saying, “If you criticise the ‘Gen Z’, the question you should ask is: who raised them? They are a reflection of their upbringing, the families that raised them. I won’t blame the product, but I will blame the sower. The values have been eroded and it is traceable to bad parenting.”
When asked if he believed in the myth behind money ritual, he said: “It is not in the context many think. Many people think it is when you hide someone in a wardrobe, put a calabash on someone’s head, and drop money from somewhere. This is not true. The money that the supposed demon brought, who printed it? Every currency has a number, so where does the number of the currency that demon is bringing fit in? Who puts the number there? Who signs the currency?”
Explaining how it works, he said, “Money rituals open doors for the demon to help you by manipulating others.
“The person doing the money ritual will enjoy undue favours from people. The people will be hypnotised; they will give you offers you are not due for and this will be to the detriment of other people.
“Look at the Yahoo boys, for instance; the rituals they do help them to convince their victims in releasing their funds to them. These victims are hypnotised- that is demonic. Demons would help people who have done rituals by hypnotising another person to release his money. That is not normal because it is going to be a transaction at arm’s length.”
In what may be described as a veiled agreement with those who blame religious bodies for money-making rituals, Olaojo advised pastors to use their pulpits to preach hard work and patience. “Christianity has been made to be glamorous; people present the church like showbiz.
“Let people see that nothing comes freely. Even money rituals are not free because, at the end of the day, there is going to be repercussions.
“That somebody has money does not mean God has accepted him or her,” he said.
The law does not recognise superstitious belief
A Lagos-based lawyer, Tayo Douglas, said the Nigerian Law does not recognise superstitious beliefs, including “miracles being peddled by the so-called Pentecostal or the born-again churches in Nigeria.”
Douglas, who said money ritual might be explained away if it was done with parts of animals, said: “Where the problem lies is when human beings are now the victims of such evil practices. What is then expected of the prosecutor to prove to the court is just the offence of murder and nothing more. Whether the intention of the accused murderer is all about “money ritual” or anything of the like is of no importance to the law. What the fellow is being accused of is simply the murder of human being/s and nothing more.”
He also urged the government to warn religious leaders to desist from preaching overnight riches and prosperity.
“There is nothing like money rituals and overnight prosperity. It is the situation of the country’s economy that has provoked the madness in our society. How do you explain a situation where a pastor of one of these Pentecostal churches stood up before his congregants sometime ago to demand the sum of N1b from each of the members under the disguise of “partnership with God?”
“These are parts of the things that breed the problems we have today in society. Everybody wants to make money fast. It is quite unfortunate.”
He also advised the Police to be more committed to their responsibilities: “They should be more proactive by going after the herbalists and pastors goading these boys into evil practices.
“It is not today that we started witnessing the barbaric practices of human rituals. The Law has always been there to take care of the stupidity. As early as 1949, the 43rd Alaaye of Efon-Alaaye in the present Ekiti State was sentenced to death over the ritual killing of a toddler. We are only shouting today because of the alarming dimensions of evil practices. The earlier a fastidious approach is employed to curb the scourge, the better,” said Douglas.
In an interview with The Nation, the traditional ruler of Ode Ule Kingdom of Legusenland, Remo North LGA, Ogun State, Oba Adedayo Olusino Adekoya, Erinsiba 1, likened ritual killing to “killing a living thing in a manner in which it is not a sacrifice to bring a gift to the divinity, but to apply its blood or its whole for a practical purpose which may be religious or for the derivation of particular advantage to the killer or the group killing. It could be an animal or a human being.”
The royal father, who is also the President-General, Worldwide of Isese Agbaye, disclosed that contrary to the general belief, the Yoruba traditional religion frowns on money ritual, saying, “Orunmila had previously banned the use of humans as sacrifice for any deity or spirituality, after his son, through Poroye, was almost used for his annual festival in the mythology of the ancients.
“Therefore, any sacrifice that involves the loss of life or any part thereof of any human being neither belongs to the Yoruba spirituality or religion, Isese.”
Adekoya, who also agreed that money ritual exists, threw more light on the process involved, saying, “The way it is done is that all the wealth one is supposed to accumulate over a period of one’s lifespan is pushed into one within a very short period of two to five years and then one dies mysteriously. It is no myth. It is reality.”
He, however, advised that the best way to make money is to work very hard and save very hard too, either through investing proceeds of the hard work or in other legitimate ways.
He also described as “nonsensical” the tendency to associate ritual killing with the traditional religion. To him, it is a deliberate attempt to further colonise the minds of the people, particularly the youth, and mislead them into believing that their cultural heritage, including their faith, is wrong.
According to him, “It is the exposure of the youth to foreign values that has grossly detached them from their natural bases, their cultures, and traditions. Most do not even understand their indigenous language, not to talk of speaking in their mother’s tongue. They thus go for different values from strange places.”
“There is nothing wrong in a minister or a pastor engaging in a commercial activity alongside his calling. I know that in the indigenous Isese religion, the first principle you learn from the elders is that of the dignity of labour. It is common to hear people saying, “Babalawo to nda eesu, owo e a ro” (the Babalawo who participates in daily contributions would be very expensive to consult with.) Everyone should work and learn to work. The followers should be encouraged to work and the expectation of miracles for wealth should be de-emphasised.
“The best way to stem the scourge of money ritual is to go back to the basics; teach the child the right values; give psychological support to cure the adult and youths of greed, and imbibe contentment in children, adolescents, adults and the aged.”
Why Yahoo boys are now involved in ritual killings
Many youths, whose pastime is cybercrime, have been found to be involved also in ritual killings solely to gain some supernatural power to influence their unsuspecting victims.
Speaking on the development, Adekoya said: “Some also believe that they need such powers to enhance their own capacities for their aura or ‘Eleda. There is also the need to protect themselves from arrest by law enforcement agents or attack by their perceived enemies. They want the power of life and death over others and they wish for near immortality.
“To influence a victim, the power of “Awimayehun” in one form or the other is used to convince the victim, such that whatever he or she is told is what he or she does. The person virtually becomes a zombie. It may be something beyond hypnotism.”
He also stated that man by his nature always makes efforts to thrive in all he does, but that internet fraudsters seem to have a jaundiced view of this noble pursuit.
According to him, “We believe that whatever one does, the Eleda, the personal creative phenomenon of each person, should stand by him or her. This is normally used for positive ends. But the cybercriminals see it differently.”
Also, a sociology lecturer at Ambrose Alli University, Edo State, Dr. Andrew Eromensele, confirmed that there is empirical evidence to show that money rituals do exist, going by the stories of contemporary youths using their relatives, mothers, girlfriends, and others to make money.
He blamed the incidents on the religious institutions that celebrate the rich in society, without necessarily profiling the sources of their wealth.
“There are instances where individuals are invited by religious bodies to assist their projects. The consequence is that society now believes that when you get money at all costs and help the church, you will go to heaven.”
Society enslaved by beliefs
Unfortunately, a section of society is wired in such a way that every successful businessman is a ritualist.
There had been several instances in the past when some people had been accused of being involved in money rituals, yet nobody was able to prove such allegations.
The most unfortunate thing is that oftentimes those accused would have been labelled as ritualists.
Even after it would have been proven that those so labelled were wrongly labelled, the damage would have been done, and they never get to recover from the stigma.
A case in point would be the travail of the late owner of popular ST Soap, Alhaji Safiriyu Tiamiyu in Ijebu-Mushin, Ogun State.
Until he was accused of being involved in money rituals, he had a thriving soap business and was so successful that his soap became a household name across Southwest Nigeria.
He reportedly had a disagreement with some of his workers. And in order to nail him, he was implicated in a kidnapping and ritual case.
One Baba Oníkèké, a leper, claimed Tiamiyu routinely purchased human parts from him.
Baba Oníkèké insisted that he sold two human eyes to Tiamiyu for N2, 000 (Two Thousand Naira).
But when Baba Oníkèké was told to identify Tiamiyu in the midst of his managers, he couldn’t.
Unfortunately, the ritualist allegation stuck with the industrialist like a leech, even though it was never proven.
He never survived it! He subsequently retired into a more private and secluded life for years, with nothing virtually heard about him or his whereabouts.
The case of Tiamiyu is akin to that of Dr. Raheem Adedoyin whose Hilton Hotel is located in Ile-Ife, Osun State an Obafemi Awolowo University post-graduate student, Timothy Adegoke, had reportedly died.
Many, especially bloggers, went to town with the story that some parts of the deceased’s body had been removed for money-making rituals purposes.
Even explanations by the Police that no part of the deceased was tampered with could not assuage their anger.
The reports of the pathologists also confirmed that the body was never tampered with.
The owner of the hotel also made several attempts to disabuse the minds of many that he made his money through hard via his Facebook page managed by one of his aides, he got more condemnations.
On his Facebook page, he wrote “God of gods sees everybody.
“All curses in the Holy Bible and Quran shall be on me if I kill Timothy Adegoke.
“If not, all curses in the Holy Bible and Holy Quran shall be on my enemies that said I killed Timothy Adegoke.
“I swear with all that God gave to me that I have never killed anybody in my life. If I did, let all that I have perished.
“I started school business in 1983. Ogun owo (money ritual) is a ruse. (Complete lie).”
As of now, his story is that of engaging literary work with a sad ending, having been tried and convicted by an Osun State High Court.
