Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The House of Representatives yesterday called on the Inspector General of Police to set up a crack team to unmask and prosecute the cartels behind ritual killings across the nation.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a matter of urgent public importance moved under Order 8 Rule 4 on the need to curb the dangerous trend in the killing of young girls for ritual purposes in Nigeria.
Moving the motion at the plenary, Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante, decried the recent wave and sustained killings of young girls who are mostly undergraduates by their supposed boyfriends, for ritual purposes.
The lawmaker expressed dismay at the recent murder of 20-year-old Miss Justina Otuene, an undergraduate of the Department of Biochemistry, University of Port Harcourt by Damian Okoligwe, a student of the same university.
Abiante also recalled the murder of Augusta Osedion, a final year student of Lead City University in July, 2023 by her boyfriend, Benjamin Best who goes by the nickname killaboi in Lagos.
He also cited the murder of Miss Oghenefejiro Ochuko, a final year student of Ambrose Ali University who was equally killed in August, 2023 by her boyfriend, Victor Ochonogor in Benin.
He expressed worry that the killings had almost become a daily occurrence with several other reported cases of missing females with their whereabouts still unknown.
The lawmaker further expressed worry that few of the reported missing victims were often found dead without traces of the perpetrators.
Abiante stressed that the killings take similar patterns of dismembering the bodies of the victims and removal of their vital organs.
He added that the perpetrators of the heinous crimes were young boys who might not be working alone but with strong cartels, while lamenting that young girls have become endangered species.
The lawmaker stressed the need to protect young girls and indeed every Nigerian as enshrined in section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
The House, therefore, called on “the Inspector General of police to set up a crack team to conduct a holistic investigation with the sole aim of unmasking the cartels behind these killings and bringing them to justice.”
