Babatope Okeowo 
Mr. Adeyemi Seidu, a son of a bricklayer, had the privilege of marrying Miss Khadijat Oluboyo and becoming an in-law to a former Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Alhaji Lasisi Oluboyo, with all the various opportunities attached to such a union.
Murders
But rather than tapping into this elevated connection, he killed Khadijat, and left her body in his room for six days before he was arrested by police. Seidu had since been convicted and waiting to be executed on the order of an Akure High Court, who found him guilty of ritual murder. A 70-year-old petty trader, Mrs Medinat Ala in Ikare in Akoko Northeast Local Government Area of the state was also killed by suspected ritualists. According to sources in the Okeegbe area of Ikare-Akoko the alleged ritualists removed the breast, womb and private part of the septuagenarian. The victim, it was learnt, used to sell household needs in front of her family house before the attack in the early hours of the day she was murdered. Similar incidences were reported where victims were killed and vital organs removed for suspected ritual purposes.
Similarly, Funmilayo Kayode, who was arrested for picking human hairs at a barber’s shop, told the law enforcement officers that she collected the hairs on the instruction of an herbalist. The suspect said it was Michael Omolayo (the herbalist) that told her that human hairs would be the solution to the spiritual problems afflicting her son. Also, a suspected ritualist, Tunde Olayiwola, who was arrested with a fresh human head, said he bought it for N60, 000 from one of his customers. He said he wanted to use it for money making rituals. Olayiwola, who claimed to be an herbalist with 53 years’ experience, said he bought the human head from one of his customers in order to use it for a wealth ritual.
Underwear harvesters
Two suspected underwear harvesters, Samuel Linus and Adekunke Ogundana were recently arrested by the Ondo State Police Command for stealing pants at the mission house of an orthodox church in Akure, the state capital. Linus and Ogundana, who were security guards posted to the church, were said to have stolen the pants of a daughter of the venerable of the church spread overnight. Earlier, Kayode Michael was arrested by the residents of Danjuma for collecting women’s underwear in the area allegedly for ritual purposes. The suspect was almost lynched by the mob of the after catching him with a polythene bag containing the female underwear as he was accused of planning to use the underwear for ritual purposes or sell them to ritualists.
A source, who witnessed the incident, said some of the female items found in the bag that the suspect was carrying included different used pants, bras and blood-soaked sanitary pads. The various arrests by the police and conviction by the courts showed the upsurge in money making rituals in the state. Interestingly, most of the people arrested were in their twenties, sending jitters down the spine of parents whose children could fall into the hands of ritualists masquerading as boyfriends. New Telegraph learnt that most of the victims of ritual killings were female, with the suspects being male.
Parents’ fears
A parent, Chief Olabode Ajewole said it is difficult to know the difference between a boy seeking the hands of his daughter in marriage and a suspected ritualist looking for the next victim. He said he is always wary of boys coming around to look for his daughter. Another parent, Mr Adebisi Apampa said he is frustrated with the way young men are desperately looking for money through dubious means including ritual killings. He said many young people who were supposed to be in the schools now live in hotels with female partners. These partners could be the next victims of ritual killings. A widow, Mrs Ojo expressed fears that her daughter could fall into the wrong hands.
She said poverty among parents pushed their daughters into prostitution and they could ultimately end up in the hands of suspected ritualists. She asked the government to come to the aid of the widows and jobless youths to reduce the rate of ritual killings in the country. This upsurge in ritual killing, harvesting of vital human organs and underwear has made prominent religious and traditional leaders in the state to denounce money making through ritual killings. The leaders, who were united in their strong condemnation of ritual killings, stated that only God and hard work can unlock the gates of wealth.
Hoax
An Ogboni Chieftain and the Olomofe of Akureland, Chief Bello Adedeke dismissed ritual-induced money making as a hoax, insisting that only God and hard work can give someone money. “All that is happening now, whereby human beings are killed in the name of money rituals, is just mere manipulations of the evil doers to incite the dead to make them rich. Riches like that don’t last long and it always ends in suffering. Some would work and some would not. “Nobody kills humans for money that will go unpunished, that is why those doing it for them will never do it for themselves or their children.
Those doing it now are ignorant of the fact that it does not end well. What is the essence of the money that will shorten one’s life and later vanish? “To my surprise, the trend has now changed to harvesting of human parts. During our time, to make a sacrifice for fortune required the killing of pigeons and some snails. With that we were still scared of involving ourselves,” he said. Reacting to nowadays youths’ uncontrollable desire to get rich quickly, the centurion blamed the flamboyant lifestyle of politicians and religious leaders on the rush for ill-gotten wealth through money rituals. He said the system is no more working, adding that the youth who have no conscience have to look for alternative routes to success. His words: “In the olden days, only lazy individuals at old age looked for cheap means to wealth and we saw those involved in this act as being callous. But nowadays, it seems the whole world has lost what is called conscience.
The devil is now ruling the world, I am now 106 years old. All that is happening now is strange, especially the senseless killings in the name of making money. Whenever I think about the way people nowadays, especially our youths, are exposed to killing their fellow humans in the name of quick money that will vanish at any time, I weep for them. “The devil has blindfolded the perpetrators of the evil act not to see the end and repercussions of what they are doing. We that are in the system know that there is nothing like a money ritual because what is the essence of making the riches that can vanish at any time.” Also, the Balogun Oniwasi of the state, Sheik Bello Asisoloriiro, in his reaction, confirmed the existence of money rituals in the Yoruba tradition and it sometimes works for some people.
The cleric said that the use of mystical and spiritual powers in wealth accumulation or adding one ingredient to another to make fortunes have been in existence from time immemorial in Africa but was done secretly. He said it was not as rampant as now where indiscriminate killings are involved. He condemned the evil act of killing for money, saying those who are doing it for them are also the bad eggs that need to be flushed out from society. The Islamic cleric lamented how youths and teenagers see money ritual as the only shortcut to success without taking into cognizance that anybody who kills or money will not have peace here on earth and also in heaven. He said those that kill for money don’t know they would not have a rest of mind.
The time will come where the owners of the head and hand they have used will surely be requesting for it.” A cleric and retired broadcaster, Venerable Nelson Fadoju, said it is not strange to Christians as Christ mentioned this before he departed from this world. “The fact remains that the world is getting old and this accounts for all these deterioration we are seeing everywhere, people literally no longer have the fear of God in them,” he said. Also speaking on the same menace, Pastor Paul Ayodele of the Gospel Faith Mission International said it is sad. “A situation where children are conspiring together to use their mother for rituals and parents are conspiring to use their children for rituals, the world is really going to a close,” he said. The Oluawo of Oba-Ile in Akure North, Chief Olu Fagoroyo said those in ritual killings would incur the wrath of God. He said some fake herbalists who wanted to disengage a customer might tell him to bring human parts knowing fully he would be arrested. He wondered why some people who could make people rich refuse to make themselves and family members rich.
