Ritual killings and occult fraud are symptoms of a deeper national disorder, argues
K. BOLANLE ATI-JOHN
There are crimes that shock a nation. There are others that reveal it. The recurring reports of ritual killings, body-part harvesting, occult fraud, fake spiritual prescriptions, blood-money practices, and the growing mythology of supernatural wealth in Nigeria belong to the second category. They are not merely criminal incidents. They are symptoms of a deeper national disorder.
The ritualist is not an isolated monster living outside society. He is one of the darkest products of a society that has separated wealth from work, success from scrutiny, spirituality from ethics, and power from accountability. He thrives where institutions are weak, where poverty humiliates, where sudden wealth is worshipped, where fear is monetised, and where too many people have stopped asking the most basic moral question: how did he get the money?
Nigeria must treat ritual killing as a crime. But if we stop there, we will misunderstand the problem. Ritual killing is the visible tip of a broader criminal spiritual economy. Within that economy are killers, recruiters, lurers, body-part traders, occult consultants, fraudulent herbalists, rogue clerics, marabouts, fake prophets, criminal shrine operators, desperate clients, political patrons, cultists, cybercriminals and silent beneficiaries. The victim may be killed by one hand, but the moral machinery that made the killing possible is often larger than the person holding the knife.
