April 25, (THEWILL) – They don’t go around with guns, grenades and bombs like bandits or terrorists but they kill all the same. Their victims are almost always women they know intimately who they lure and slaughter as ritual for money. THEWILL considers some recent cases of those murdered for instant wealth that never got to be. Michael Jimoh reports…
Shortly before Christmas of 2019 in a church premises somewhere in Ikoyi-Ile Ogun state, a mother and her son sat down to a meat-rich soup, shared by a third party, the church’s pastor, priest, spiritualist or whatever. They wolfed down choice parts, followed by spirited conversations about the expected fortune for all of them.
Of the trio, only one never knew that what was slushing around in her digestive system was human flesh and not beef or goat meat. Convinced he’d consulted a spiritualist to offer sacrifice for her business to progress, the woman readily obliged her son’s request to share the meal. She would have thanked and blessed him for his thoughtfulness and show of concern as they munched on.
“Omo da da ni yin,” one can imagine the mother saying between bites, “olorun a pese fun yin o.” The son would have responded with a prolonged “amiiiiiiiiin,”and the pastor/ spiritualist echoing him.
By the 29th of the same month, Metro sections of Nigerian newspapers reported the bizarre account of one Adeeko Owolabi, 23, a student of Lagos State University, Ojo, who lured his girlfriend and fellow student, Favour Daley-Oladele, to a white garment church where she was killed.
Days before, Daley-Oladele in final year (some reports said she was a Theatre Arts undergrad while others insist she was a Sociology major) had been reported missing by her parents at Mowe Police Station in the state. On investigation, their trail led to a church where Segun Philip is the resident pastor. Caught out, the demonic spiritualist confessed to the police how Owolabi came to him with his girlfriend to be used as ritual for money.
Owolabi himself who was there at that time admitted as much. He had met and consulted the spiritualist on what to do to become rich and for his mother’s fortune to turn around – for good. Human sacrifice, Philip told him. So, he brought his girlfriend to the church. While she was asleep, Philip instructed Owolabi to pestle-whip her head. He did. Philip then severed her head, cut open her chest, removed the heart and then cooked it. Along with Owolabi’s mother, they feasted on Daley-Oladele’s heart unknown to the woman she was consuming one of the most vital parts in her son’s girlfriend’s body.
“We have got no money,” Adeeko said later when he appeared in court during his trial. “Things have not been going on well.” Worst of all was his belated acknowledgment that after murdering his girlfriend, “my mum’s business has not improved after what we did and despite our efforts. I think money ritual does not work.”
Apparently, four teenagers who were arrested last February in the same state in Adatan Abeokuta metropolis did not think so. Nigerians read with shocked revulsion how they lured one Sofiat Kehinde then killed her. Though the teens didn’t cannibalise the victim, her killing was no less gory than the casual murder of Daley-Oladele.
In their shocking by shocking detailed account to the police, Soliu Majekodunmi had invited Sofiat for a normal boyfriend/ girlfriend tryst. Soliu’s next action would confound even the most perceptive of psychiatrists: How can a teenager harbor in his young mind two very opposite ideas, actions simultaneously – love and death – and carry them out within minutes? That was exactly what Soliu did!
He made love to Sofiat first – aware that would be the last time. Satisfied, Soliu twisted her neck – sort of having his cake and eating it since her death would make all of them millionaires in no time. His accomplices then severed her head, cut off her genitals, chopped up the rest of the body and packed them into a sack. They took the head to an uncompleted building and dumped it in a pot on fire. It was the strange smell that attracted local vigilantes to that building where they were caught. Soliu fled but was soon arrested.
As of now, three of the four – Soliu, 18, Wariz Oladeinde, 17, Abdulgafar Lukman 19, and Mustakeem Balogun, 20, are bemoaning their fate at a correctional facility in Ogun state awaiting sentencing. Oladeinde was freed last month by a trial judge based on legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions and investigation by police that established his innocence.
Last Christmas eve, one Osas killed his girlfriend, Elohor Oniorosa, in Edo state to make money. Osas was said to have returned from Ghana days before, invited the unsuspecting victim to his home and then slaughtered her at Egor in a local government council by the same name. The girl’s father, William Oniorosa, reported the matter to the police. Osas has been on the lam since then.
Though he absconded after killing his girlfriend for ritual in Jos on New Year day, Moses Oko was finally tracked down to Benue state where he was arrested. Nigerians were stunned beyond belief when they read that Oko, son of a lecturer, lured his girlfriend, Jennifer Anthony, a 300-level student of University of Jos, to a hotel room, killed her, plucked out her eyes, removed some body parts and then left her lifeless body in the room.
Jennifer’s friends, fellow students and family had declared her missing. With help from Oko’s father, the police arrested the murderer in Benue state.
Nigerians read of such weird stories now and then that they have almost become commonplace. What is the magnetic pull for those who kill people for ritual to make money? Why are some young people irresistibly drawn to such savage acts by Owolabi, the teenagers in Adatan, Oko and Osas?
Instant wealth, for sure, which never really happens. Those who watch Nollywood films, especially the Yoruba genre, might be carried away by scenes where a lead actor turns his spouse into a money-making machine. In real life, though, it is almost an impossible feat to carry out.
THEWILL could not resist asking if such money rituals actually work. Does killing a girlfriend, say, or brother for money turn them into instant money-spinners? And in what currency? Dollars, Pounds, Euro or devalued Naira?
An emphatic no was the response THEWILL got from someone who should know one or two things about sacrificing humans as ritual for money. Chief Olayemi Elebuibon is a renowned Ifa priest in Osogbo, Osun state. All through his years in practice spanning four decades, he claims not to know where people are used as ritual to improve one’s fortune or to make money.
“I don’t think it is possible,” he told THEWILL. In his reckoning, people are just wasting lives hoping to make money thereof. And like any Ifa priest worth his opele, Elebuibon put the matter in a better and more logical perspective. “If it were ever possible,” Elebuibon said, “I, as an Ifa priest, will make myself rich instead of making other people rich.”
As well as condemning the gruesome killing of Sofiat by the Adatan four because of their greed for money, Elebuibon also put the blame squarely at the doorstep of defaulting parents and guardians.
The Kids Are Not To Blame
That was the impression THEWILL got from the Ifa priest. When parents fail to monitor and train their children properly, such tragedies as Daley-Oladele’s and Sofiat’s are almost inevitable. Besides, some parents even encourage their wards to make money any which way they can, sometimes by taking another person’s life.
Consider, for instance, the astonishing disclosure by one suspected Internet fraudster, Afeez Olalere, 32, his own mother encouraged to kill his 21-year-old younger brother. In his bone-chilling account, Afeez said: “My mother took me to an herbalist who told me if I wanted to be successful in the yahoo business, I will have to sacrifice one life and that person must be a sibling to me.”
Mother and son put their heads together and resolved to poison Afeez’s 21-year-old brother. He died within 20-minutes of administering the poison. They got the things the native doctor requested for: fingers, hair, thumb and passport photograph. Continuing, Afeez said his mother procured the poison while he cut up the parts and then deposited the corpse in a mortuary.
An unexpected stop-and search by the police at Itamaga Ikorodu busted him. The luckless fraudster, and his mother are both awaiting trial.
Timothy Odeniyi, 35, didn’t have to commit fratricide to make money. He belongs to that rare breed of cemetery-stalkers, grave robbers or tomb raiders not for trinkets – a gold ring on a decaying finger, say – but for human parts: a kidney, lung or liver, perhaps. Arrested on February 1st by men of the Amotekun Corps in Ondo state, Odeniyi confessed to selling human parts to buyers in Lagos.
Quoted by a reporter, the suspect said “he was promised N30m if he could produce and deliver human parts to be delivered to one of his bosses living in Lagos.” To supply his clients, Timothy “went to burial grounds to harvest the body parts from corpses buried,” insisting that “he did not murder anyone.”
Though mostly prevalent in Ogun state, killing people for ritual has assumed something of a national spread. From down in Port Harcourt to Cross Rivers, across the Middle Belt and elsewhere, sacrificing people to make money has become a routine, as routine as bandits or terrorists sacking and occupying an isolated community anywhere in the Sahel. But while Boko Haram insurgents who have now morphed into bandits or terrorists claim to be fighting for an ideological or religious cause, ritual killers perpetuate their evil acts for selfish reasons.
Disturbed by the recent surge in ritual killings in the country, especially by young people, a religious body, Ansar-ud-deen Society of Nigeria made the scourge a special focus during the Ramadan Talk in Abuja just at the beginning of the fasting period in April.
On April 7th at a briefing in the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Olayiwola, chairman of the branch, said the “the situation has provoked soul-searching and brought home the need for an urgent response to halt the frightful upsurge in the killings.” He then pointedly asked like many adult rational minds would: “What would a teenager need money to do even to the extent of killing and beheading a human being for money rituals?”
Olayiwola himself provided an answer: “Parents have neglected their roles. So, we are looking at reviving family values and highlighting the importance of parental care. Where there is an absence of family values, it leaves a negative effect on the nation.”
From the pulpit to mosques and even academia, the talk of the town is the scourge of ritual killings for money by young people. And it has reached such an alarming rate that three university dons once devoted their time to understanding it.
In a study conducted by the trio of Habeeb Abdulrauf Salihu, Monsurat Isiaka of the Department of Criminology and Security Studies at the University of Ilorin, and Isiaka Abdulaziz of the Department of Social Sciences Education in the same institution, the researchers reached a disturbing conclusion.
Titled “The Growing Phenomenon of Money Rituals-Motivated Killings in Nigeria: An Empirical Study Into Factors Responsible,” they polled a total of 1736 people using a simple random technique – a questionnaire for data collection.
Though the researchers limited their study to Ilorin Emirate Council only, the end result of ritual killings is almost the same anywhere in the country whether in Akure, Gusau, Minna, Port Harcourt or Uyo.
“The results indicated that the increase in money ritual-related killings in Ilorin Emirate is a result of the general belief that ritual sacrifices enhance fortunes,” the researchers concluded, adding that possible causes are “the boundless desire for material wealth among Nigerians, unemployment and poverty in Nigeria.”
How true! The Adatan four killed for money ditto for Oko, Osas and Owolabi. Asked where he got to know about sacrificing humans for money, Soliu said: “I learnt how to do money ritual through Facebook.”
Another victim was dispatched after posting on social media she needed a job. Twenty-something year old Iniobong Umoren from Uyo Akwa Ibom looked forward to starting one and not getting killed after posting her request on Twitter. Another user Uduak Akpan from the same Uyo dangled a job offer before the lady. They met soon after and that was the last time parents and friends of Iniobong saw her.
Akpan had taken Iniobong somewhere, raped her, killed her and then buried her in a shallow grave. That would have been a perfect murder Akpan would surely have gotten away with. Not quite. Before keeping the appointment with the rogue employer, Iniobong had given the killer’s number to a friend. That was how Akpan was found out by the police. He later led security agents to where he buried the unfortunate woman.
Though the police are not certain Iniobong’s murder was for ritual purpose, one Dakuku Peterside writing on May 11 insists it was. “There were reports that Ms. Umoren’s gruesome murder was not just a case of rape and murder but that it also involved ritual killing.”
Money ritual isn’t such a novel thing around here although it has increased exponentially recently. Nigerians still remember one Victor Nnamdi Okafor (Ezego aka king of money) who died in mysterious circumstances on his 34th birthday in a road accident in Ihiala, Anambra state. In his very short life, Ezego already had a pool of exotic cars he tooled around in, had built mansions in Ajao Estate, Lagos, two or so country homes in his natal state.
Of course, as a self-styled king of money, Okafor pretty much let people know that by hosting swank parties here and there, generally living in obscene opulence as if the time allotted him was running out. A previously penurious apprentice in a shop where he sold food items, how Ezego came about his sudden and humongous wealth is still a subject of speculation. Some say he signed a kind of Mephistophelian pact. Others say he was a first class fraudster, a 419, precursor of today’s yahoo, yahoo-plus boys.
Still in his report headlined “The Scourge of Ritual Killings,” Peterside argues that ritual killing has a foundation in the social fabric of the country. “Amongst a large group of Nigerians, including the well-educated and people from different faiths and social backgrounds,” Peterside averred, “there is a strong belief in the supernatural and the effectiveness of rituals.
“This belief has a direct correlation to the prevalence of ritual killings. It is a well-known fact that some elite in society indulge in ritual killings. Some people apprehended for ritual killings and witch doctors who perform the sacrifices accused politicians, government officials and wealthy businessmen as their sponsors. They are said to use human beings for rituals to sustain their affluence and remain in positions of power.”
Sometimes, too, they sacrifice healthy bovines or rams in place of humans. There was the case of a governor of one of the South west states who made so many powerful enemies while in office. To rub him out, his enemies didn’t turn to a sniper. It was said they went to Ilorin where they consulted Imams/ Alfas. What was their solution? Bury a live cow while chanting incantations and the governor would be done for.
Of course, it worked. But it was not the governor that died. It was his namesake who was working in government house at the time. Even the coming 2023 general elections, Peterside fears, is showing ominous signs. “It is not surprising that there are usually increased cases of mysterious disappearances and ritual killings during elections. Some desperate, fetish, and superstitious politicians always consult herbalists and native doctors during elections to help them overcome their opponents. These spiritualists usually demand human heads and other body parts to perform rituals.”
For now, the youngsters who kill for money are neither politicians nor top officials in government ministries. They are mostly poor, greedy for the good life they can ill afford. So, they seek shorter cuts through ritual. Which brings up the question: despite the arrests of the Adatan teenagers, Owolabi and Oko, will that send a message to potential ritual killers?
It is doubtful. Only last week, Peter Albert, 20, died after undergoing money ritual procedure in Ado-Odo/ Ota local government area of Ogun state. Wanting to boost his chances of success with victims via Internet fraud, Albert consulted a friend, David, who introduced him to one Alfa Araokanmi.
To cut a long story short, Araokanmi prepared some concoctions for Albert with special instructions to follow – like bathing for a number of days at midnight. Albert’s father got to know of his son’s suspicious movement each time he returned home late. Good parent that he is, he reported his son to the vigilantes around. Alas, they couldn’t do much to save the young man after ingesting the concoction. He died soon after.
True, some of the youngster scammers, ritual killers target others by murdering them for money. But life is seldom worth living ofterwards as Soliut, Owolabi, Oko and Osas have now found out. “I think money ritual does not work,” Owolabi rued. It was too late, for his girlfriend and himself.
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
