- •It’s encouraged by spiritualists, not traditionalists — Elebuibon
Killing for rituals has become the crime of the moment for many desperate young Nigerians angling for quick wealth. In the last few months, many of these criminals have sent their girlfriends, mothers, fathers, friends and many unfortunate others to their untimely graves. Amid the prevailing poverty in the land, many have resorted to doing anything, no matter how weird, for wealth.
Miffed by this ugly trend, some traditionalists across the South-West have urged security agencies to clamp down on the people that claim to have the power to make others wealthy through the use of human parts for rituals.
The traditionalists insist that no Yoruba deity was recorded to have used human beings or parts of their bodies for wealth.
Recently, the Traditional Religion Worshippers Association in Oyo State said the current situation in Nigeria and Africa where youngsters exhibit tons of cash, jewelry, posh automobiles and other material wealth on social media, thereby inviting unsuspecting members of the public to subscribe to the same venture, is horrible and should be stamped out by the Federal Government.
The traditionalists claimed that the daily reports of killings and kidnappings for ritual purposes are traceable to the belief that wealth could be made by sacrificing human lives. Going into history, the Chairman and Secretary of the association, Messrs Adefabi Dasola and Fakayode Fatunde, said that the progenitors of Ifa oracle never claimed to have used human parts to seek prosperity.
The body added that Ifa adherents would rather call on Eledumare to bless whoever sought wealth through them and whenever appeasements were to be done, simple items like sugarcane, salt and banana among others, were used.They claimed that the general notion that ritual money is done by Ifa priests is not true, saying it is in the public domain that people of all religious leanings engage in it.
Regulatory bodies were also charged to censor Nigerian movies (Nollywood) that have contents projecting the use of human beings for money rituals, as according to them, the false projections have made unguided youths believe in the lies and engaged in money rituals, especially killings and selling of human body parts.
They said: “We are calling on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgent cause, clamp down on Nigerians proclaiming to have the power of wealth through rituals on social media and other platforms, they should be brought to justice. We are the butt of ridicule all over the world today because those in power have failed to be proactive against this horrendous development.
“The world no longer has respect for our traditions, they think we are all guilty of human rituals, no history of Africa or Yoruba gave credence to wealth by using humans for rituals.
“We should lay much of the blame on the doorsteps of our leaders in the society, their display of wealth in the face of widespread poverty, where the majority of youths are jobless and what belongs to the people is kept in the hands of a few, they are the major cause.“We have to, therefore, set the record straight that the Ifa oracle does not support the use of human parts to make wealth. Prayers can be offered for an individual who is engaged in a job for him to be prosperous; no Ifa adherent will do that.
“Our government went after Twitter the other time, for whatever reason, they claimed the platform was banned; but today, TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms are being used by these people to escalate the rate of killings in our society as our young ones now believe it is easier to access wealth through rituals with human parts than doing diligent work.
“We call on the government to quickly work alongside the owners of the social media platforms to either ban those exhibiting such horrible contents on the platforms or make it impossible to upload such.
