That human skulls merchant

IT seems that the criminals who trade in human flesh are intent on continuing their ruinous trade even in the face of social disapproval, and will never mend. That is why they must always be subjected to the wrath of the law. Hardly does a month go by without some story about ritual killing or related activities in the country. Just last week, one Yusuf Adinoyi, a suspected ritualist, was arrested with eight human skulls by security agents at Isua Akoko, in the Akoko South-East LGA of Ondo State. Adenoyin, 37, was arrested at one of the checkpoints between the Isua and Epinmi in a Nissan car en route Akure to Osogbo. He was in a vehicle with four other passengers when the personnel attached to the Police Safer Highway Patrol intercepted them on the road.

The Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Oladipo, confirmed the suspect’s arrest in a statement. According to him: “Upon interrogation, Adinoyi, 37, confessed to being the owner of the skulls and explained that he was delivering them to a herbalist named Opeifa in the Oke-Onitea area of Osogbo. He equally mentioned other customers he usually supplies human skulls to include one Almonso, who lives at Oke-Onitea, Osogbo, Alfaa Agba who lives at Oke Onitea, and also Oshoyemi who resides around the Oja Oba area. The suspect further confessed that the human skulls were usually handed over to him by one Imaila living at Oboroke in Okene, and that each head is sold for between N30,000 and N35,000.” The police chief added that the suspect would be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) unit in Akure with his case file for further investigations.

It is a shame that some people not only violate the dead, other people’s treasured bodies and memories, but also kill people to harvest their organs for sale, treating them like cattle. In most cases, these dead bodies are used in demonic money-making rituals, but the absurdity of the trade and practice is underlined by the fact that to date, no one has come out to tell the Nigerian public that he is a ritualist, as the traders in human flesh are called. The government must deploy every asset at its disposal, including public enlightenment campaigns, against this pernicious trade which casts the country and its people in extremely bad light.  This nonsense must stop. As we have said it many times, no ritualist is on Forbes’ list of billionaires.  The wealthiest people in this world have legitimate businesses; they saw a need, keyed into it, and provided services to meet that need, reaping bountiful rewards from their investment in social research. The idea that dead human flesh could somehow conjure certain spirits that will bring wealth to those subscribed to such dark practices is not only absurd but patently illogical. Are the spirits alleged to be behind such practices supposed to replace government mints, printing money from their mystical spaces and modelling them after the national currency, or do they steal other people’s money from the vault of banks, perhaps even the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), then bring such monies to those who have summoned them?  Even if such a practice was real, which is vehemently denied, how does it square with the ancient, timeless wisdom that hard work—legitimate, socially sanctioned labour— is the route to wealth?

It is no coincidence that the apprehended ritualists easily show themselves to be extremely selfish, nihilistic and narcissistic. For instance, the suspect in the current story was reported to have claimed that he sold skulls in order to cater to his mother’s health. But this is a lame excuse if it even qualifies as one. Just how do you divest other people of their body parts in order to make your own mother keep hers in good shape? If every Nigerian whose mother took ill decided on his own course of action, how would the society look? Was engaging in crime the only route to addressing his mother’s health challenge? How about engaging in honest, decent labour? And now that he is in the clutches of the law, how will he ensure his mother’s wellbeing?

Yusuf’s arrest confirms, yet again, the prevalence of ritualistic engagements across the country as the platform for wealth enhancement as if killing people had ever resulted in real riches. The society has a lot of work to do to dissuade people from this unfortunate and ridiculous mindset that could only have resulted from the perversions attributable to poverty in the land. Wealth, we reiterate, ordinarily comes from productive engagements, hardwork and commitment and not the infantile engagement with occult manipulations. Given that this unfortunate engagement with rituals often comes with the sadistic killing of other human beings, there is a crucial need to strengthen the capacity of the government to apprehend those involved for necessary and appropriate punishment. In the present instance, that would include conducting thorough investigations to expose all those associated with Adinoyi in the nefarious business and ensuring that they are all adequately punished in accordance with the laws of the land.

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