NIGERIA: FG speaks on alarming ritual killings, directs National Film and Video Censors Board to act

*Set to launch of sensitization campaign against money rituals

The Federal Government will soon launch a national sensitization campaign against the growing scourge of money rituals, which has already claimed many lives, especially of women and girls, in the country.

Mr. Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant to the President on Media, Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, disclosed this in a statement dated 21 February, 2022.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced this in Abuja on Monday when he paid a working visit to the corporate headquarters of the Media Trust Limited, owners of Daily Trust group of newspapers and Trust Television.

“Gentlemen, our visit today is coming at a time of great concern across the country over the rising cases of ritual murders by unscrupulous people, most of them very young, who are seeking to get rich at all cost. We have therefore decided to use this opportunity to begin the process of raising national awareness on this scourge.

“For those who may still be in doubt, ritual killings have assumed a worrisome dimension in recent years. According to an NGO, Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), 150 women and girls were killed for ritual purposes between January 2018 and December 2021,” he said, while also citing recent ritual killings in
other parts of the country.

Alhaji Mohammed said the National Orientation Agency (NOA) is already partnering with religious and traditional organizations as well as NGOs to forge behavioural change, especially among the youth, some of whom, he said, are afflicted by the get-rich-quick syndrome.

He also announced that he has directed the National Film and Video Censors Board, the regulatory body for films and videos in the country, to take the issue of ritual killings into consideration while censoring and classifying films and videos, in addition to engaging with stakeholders in the industry to express the concerns of the government and Nigerians on the need for Nollywood producers to eschew money ritual content in their movies.

While calling on the media to lend its strong voice to the efforts to stamp out the growing menace of ritual killings, the Minister commended a newspaper that has already written an editorial against the menace.

“I implore the Daily Trust, and indeed all media organizations, to join the campaign against the scourge,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said the fact that some ritual killers said they learned the money-making tricks from some social media platforms has further given a fillip to the Federal Government’s campaign to rid social media of unwholesome content.