Abuja – The Federal Government will soon launch a national sensitisation campaign against the growing scourge of ritual killings, which has already claimed many lives, especially of women and girls, in the country.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
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.
“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 on 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 (PIND), 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.
Mohammed said the National Orientation Agency (NOA) is already partnering with religion 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 announced that he has directed the National Film and Video Censors Board, the regulatory body for films and videos in thecountry, to take the issue of ritual killings into consideration while censoring and classifying films and videos.
He also directed the board to engage 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.
While calling 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
Alhaji Mohammed said the fact that some ritual killers said they
learned the money-making tricks from some social media platforms has further given a fillip to the Federal Government’s campaign to rid social media of unwholesome content.
