House Declares National Emergency on Ritual Killings, Urges IG to Apprehend Perpetrators

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The House of Representatives has declared a national emergency on ritual killings in the country and also called on the National Orientation Agency, parents, heads of schools, religious leaders and media to undertake a campaign to change the negative narrative that was already bedeviling the society.

The House also called on the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to take urgent steps to increase surveillance and intelligence gathering with a view to apprehending and prosecuting all perpetrators of ritual killings in Nigeria.

Importantly, it called on the Executive Director, National Film and Video Censors Board to rise to the mandate of the agency as the clearing house for all movies produced in the country.

The resolutions of the lawmakers followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu at the plenary, yesterday.

Moving the motion, Okechukwu lamented that cases of ritual killings had assumed an alarming rate in Nigeria in recent times.

He noted the upsurge of reported ritual killings with increasing cases of abductions and missing persons in different parts of the country, which in most cases, the culprits also rape, maim, kill and obtain sensitive body parts of unsuspecting victims for rituals.

He said the House was aware that ritual killings had become a predominant theme in most home made movies, which if not checked, the younger generation might begin to view as an acceptable norm.

The deputy minority leader recalled the grievous killing of Iniobong Umoren, a young woman in her 20s, after being lured to a particular location in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State for a job interview, as widely reported in the national dailies.

He expressed concerns over the moral decadence in the society, a trend he said has promoted the get-rich-quick syndrome among youths.

While pointing out that fake clerics, imams, herbalists and native doctors were often complicit in the heinous practices, he further expressed concerns that although communities were getting more religious with the proliferation of churches and mosques, the ugly trend of ritual killing was on the rise as the quest for wealth at all cost has pervaded the society.

He advised that such cruel and barbaric acts should no longer be promoted in the society given the demands of today’s world, adding that there was a lot to be done by the Police and other law enforcement agencies to checkmate this ugly trend.

Adopting the motion, the House mandated its Committees on Police Affairs, Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values to ensure compliance and report back to the House within four weeks for legislative action.