The rate of ritual killings especially, by so-called “Yahoo boys” appears to be assuming a new but worrisome dimension.
Emerging trends seem to indicate that the internet fraudsters (also known as Yahoo boys) have now moved to other levels of crime other than the usual swindling of people using online platforms.
A recent video that went viral showed how a youngman was set ablaze for allegedly beheading a child in Delta State. Reports of criminal activities of the so-called “Yahoo boys” abound. This same category of youths were believed to have played a role in the nationwide End-SARS protests in Nigeria, few years ago.
Reported criminal activities of this category of youths obsessed with the get-rich-quick mentality, many of them below 30 years of age, can be horrifying. From reported rape and killing of their girlfriends, sometimes their own sisters or even mothers, to sale of human parts, among others.
A Nairaland report of Saturday, February 1, 2025, points to the increasing menace of ritual killings in Nigeria. The report painted a gory picture of the reported murder of Bamise Ayanwole, said to be a “female passenger of a BRT bus in Lagos.”
The report revealed that the 22-year old Bamise Ayanwole was a fashion designer “who got missing in transit after boarding a BRT bus from Chevron Bus Stop at Lekki en route to Oshodi.” The time was said to be about 7pm. She was said to be “heading to Idimu, but never made it to her destination, only her remains were later found by the roadside.”
The report pointed to the idea that she was allegedly killed for rituals.
Unfortunately, society appears to be gradually accepting with open arms,those who made their money through such despicable acts. Some parents no longer care about their children’s source of livelihood, perhaps due to excruciating hardship and rising poverty.
Whatever be the case, government at all levels and security agencies should synergise, and step up action to prevent as well as apprehend perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
More important is the fact that government needs to enunciate policies that create thousands of jobs for the teeming unemployed youths. There is a tendency for youths to resort to vices in the absence of jobs.
Community leaders especially, traditional rulers should collaborate with landlords, the government and security agencies by reporting people whose activities are suspicious.
Landlords should also endeavour to know their tenants very well, while those of them who deliberately harbour criminals as tenants should be prosecuted.