The Federal Government says it would soon commence a national sensitization campaign against the growing plague of money rituals in Nigeria.
The government said the trend “has already claimed many lives, especially of women and girls, in the country.”
According to a statement issued by Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the minister 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.
Mohammed said, “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 of 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, 150 women and girls were killed for ritual purposes between January 2018 and December 2021.”
He said the National Orientation Agency is already partnering with religious and traditional organizations as well as NGOs to forge behavioural change, especially among the youths.
He further announced that he has directed the National Film and Video Censors Board, the regulatory body for films and videos in the country, to consider the issue of ritual killings while censoring and classifying films and videos.
The minister called on the media to lend its strong voice to the efforts to stamp out the growing menace of ritual killings.
“I implore the Daily Trust, and indeed all media organizations, to join the campaign against the scourge”, he said
