As a way of curbing the menace of ritual killings, the Federal Government on Monday said it’s set to launch a national sensitization campaign against the growing scourge of money rituals in Nigeria.
According to a statement issued by Segun Adeyemi, the Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister announced this in Abuja on Monday when he paid a courtesy visit to the corporate headquarters of the Media Trust Limited, owners of Daily Trust group of newspapers and Trust Television.
The statement read in part “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.
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”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, while also citing recent ritual killings in other parts of the country.
According to the government, the trend “has already claimed many lives, especially of women and girls, in the country”.
The minister said the National Orientation Agency is already in partnership 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 revealed 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 also 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.
The minister also called 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
The minister said the fact that some ritual killers said they learned the money-making tricks from some social media platforms has further given a go-ahead to the Federal Government’s campaign to rid social media of unwholesome content.
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