Across Nigeria, a chilling shadow has fallen over daily life. The fear is no longer abstract. It’s the gnawing dread that a neighbor, a family friend, or a stranger might be luring someone away for the most unspeakable of purposes: ritual murder. Last week, in Cross River State’s Odukpani Local Government Area, security forces arrested a suspected serial killer who confessed to murdering dozens. He claimed a woman would entice victims to secluded spots, where they were killed, their bodies harvested for ritual use. This is not an isolated horror.
From the bustling streets of Lagos to the quieter lanes of Enugu and Port Harcourt, the rhythm of life is punctuated by these gruesome tales. In November, a Federal Road Safety Corps officer and her 12-year-old daughter were butchered in Osun State. A family friend had lured them to a herbalist’s shrine, where they were slaughtered, dismembered, and their vital organs removed. In April, Kwara State police arrested a man carrying the skull of a deceased relative he had exhumed.
This is a plague with deep roots. In March 2014, the nation recoiled when a kidnappers’ den was uncovered in Ibadan’s Soka community. Commercial motorcyclists, searching for two missing colleagues, found human skulls, dried body parts, and emaciated victims awaiting their fate. In August 2018, Lagos police arrested Taiwo Akinola, a suspected cult member, for allegedly trying to kill his own mother for money rituals.
Perhaps the most infamous case was that of Gracious David-West, the Port Harcourt serial killer who lured seven young women from Lagos, Imo, and Rivers States to hotels, murdered them, and used their bodies for rituals. A young graduate, murdered while job-hunting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, suffered a similar fate. And then there was the horrifying death of a 300-Level Delta State University student, abducted by a gang of four “yahoo boys.” One confessed they took her to a bush, plucked out her eyes, and removed her breast and heart.
The question haunts every conversation: Why? What drives this savagery, even among the educated? Many point to a desperate hunger for wealth without work. In a land ravaged by poverty and joblessness, people will try anything, no matter how grotesque. Yet, there is no proven link between these costly rituals and the instant riches promised by herbalists and voodoo practitioners. The myth persists, and the bodies pile up.
University campuses, once beacons of enlightenment, are now breeding grounds for “yahoo boys” and “yahoo girls” chasing quick fortunes. Their education does not erase the superstition that wealth comes from human sacrifice, not productive enterprise. And so, innocent citizens continue to fall victim to these barbaric acts.
