It is not the first time that the traditional ruler of Iwoland (Osun state), Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi speaks out against ritual killings in Nigeria. On May 19 of the current year he alleged that some traditional rulers are behind the ritual killings in their domains in Nigeria. See my May 21, 2019 posting. A shocking accusation and an interesting development. What drives the Oluwo the make these sensational accusations against his fellow-rulers – apart from his feeling of justice? We will follow further developments and keep the readers of the present website informed as soon as more news emerges. (webmaster FVDK)
The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi
Published: August 9, 2019 By: Victor Ogunyinka – Vanguard (Nigeria)
Oluwo of Iwoland, HIM Oba (Dr.) Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, has challenged the federal government, FG, of Nigeria for their negligence in tackling incessant ritual killings in the west, claiming ritualism is deadlier than kidnapping in the zone.
The monarch lamented daily loss of innocent individuals to ritualists, urging federal government to dissipate equal concentration to ritual killings as done to kidnapping and bokoharam fightings.
Oluwo disclosed this yesterday while hosting the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Operations, Force Headquarters, Abuja, Abdulmajid Ali in his palace as further reiterated in a press statement by the monarch’s press secretary, Alli Ibraheem.
Oluwo declared an open traditional war will be stage against ritual killers if federal government fail to address his outcry and curtail the menace.
The monarch condemned the ritual killings menace as uncultured, barbaric, callousness, Ungodly, inhumane and an affront on right to lives, stating the refusal to declared war and criminalize such act by the federal government is worrisome to his stool.
He said ritual killings should be vehemently fought more than the war against Boko Haram and kidnapping, called for urgent enactment of fatal penalty for perpetrators of ritual killings.
Oluwo further discredited the claim by some traditionalists relating ritual killings with culture as desecration of tradition itself, saying no culture accept human as sacrifice.
The statement reads: “It saddens no attention is paid to ritual killings by the federal government. Thousands fall victim of ritual on daily basis but regrettably, no one condemns such. I’m not happy with the neglect of my outcry on daily killings of my sons and daughters by ritualists. These people are deadlier than Boko Haram and kidnappers.
“I’m appealing to federal government to declare war against ritual killings. Strict penalty like death should be meted on any one culpable. Killers should be killed. Killing is not a forgivable offence. If the FG refuses, I will declare an open traditional war against ritualists.
“The Afeniferes, OPCs, Agbekoyas and other pan Yoruba cultural groups should join the revolution against ritual killings. Many gave gone to the journey of no return in the hands of ritual killers. It is pathetic, sad and calls for urgent legislation. Ritual killing is decimating our population daily. Must we continue watching the menace? Those in the government are not seeing what we see. Ritual murders is prevalent on the south west, south east. We must rise before it claim all out promising sons and daughters.
“I want to state it clearly here that killing human for rituals is not Yoruba culture. It is alien to our culture. Yoruba culture is pure, clean and attractive. Look at my dress, it is enticing, fascinating, ostentatious and attractive. Only the ignorance and enemies of Yoruba culture will relate ritual killings to Yoruba culture.
“Bible, Quran and traditionalists should not justify offering human for rituals. Clean religious clerics and traditionalists should join my preaching,” the monarch said.
Oluwo appealed to Nigerian citizens to exercise fear of God in their conducts.
An Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan, yesterday ordered that four men accused of strangling a woman to death be remanded in Agodi Prison, pending legal advice. The Chief Magistrate, Emmanuel Idowu, who did not take the pleas of Dotun Ogunlade, 24; Mutiu Ayorinde, 32; Samuel Ayorinde, 34; and Kehinde Imole, 27, ordered the police to return the case file to the Oyo State Directorate of Public Prosecutions ( DPP).
Idowu, thereafter, adjourned the case until July 23, for mention. The prosecutor, ASP Amos Adewale, told the court that the defendants allegedly conspired to commit the offence. Adewale said: “On May 29, at 10:00p.m., Ogunlade, Ayorinde and Imole allegedly caused the death of Mrs. Bosede Oguntunde, aged 25, by strangling her to death.
“The deceased, a married woman from Ilorin, was alleged to have been a Facebook friend to Ogunlade, a prophet, who invited her to his Igboora residence over her marital problem. On her arrival at Ogunlade’s residence, he allegedly gave her an overdose of sleeping drugs and strangulated her to death; and later cut off her head, two hands and burnt them for money ritual,” said Adewale.
The courtroom of the Delta State High Court, Asaba was filled to its rafters as four accused persons allegedly involved in the gruesome murder of Miss Elozino Joshualia Ogege, a 300 level student of Mass Communication at the Delta State University, Abraka filed into the court.
It was the commencement of hearing in the case against Macaulay Desmond Oghenemaro, Ojokojo Robinson Obajero, Nwosisi Benedict Uche and Enaike Onoriode accused of the killing of Elozino. The suspects were slammed with an eight charge bordering on murder, conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping.
The mood was sober and pensive. Many in court wept quietly, cursing as they sat through proceedings. Seated among Elozino’s relatives in the court with pain etched on her face and tears rolling down her cheeks was her mother, Mrs Elizabeth Ogege, who broke down in tearful ululation shortly after court proceedings ended.
As she wailed, she demanded justice for her daughter believed to have been brutally murdered in her prime for ritual purposes.
The case has been adjourned till Tuesday, June 25, 2019, for continuation of hearing.
Elozino’s case is one in the long list of ritual killings carried out by desperate youths popularly called Yahoo Boys. And while there are indications that the momentum of Yahoo menace might be waning, the fact remains that internet fraud, popularly known as ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’, and its twin practice, ritual killing, have metamorphosed into a subculture in Delta State.
This heinous crime has found an easy abode in academic environments because most of the actors are young males whose raison d’etre is primarily to acquire illicit wealth. In 2017 and 2018, there were many reports from Delta communities of unidentified female corpses with missing vital organs.
Related to the foregoing is the pilfering of female panties by persons believed to be using or selling same for ritual purposes. In the case of female panties robberies, it was reliably learnt that each pant stolen or collected at gun-point sells for about N250,000.
Triple threat
There appears to be an undeniable nexus between pant robberies, internet fraud a.k.a. Yahoo-Yahoo and ritual killings in the oil rich state; a link captured in a trending song, which insinuates that pant robbers engage in the crime for money to buy automobiles and other vain frivolities. “One pata-meter makes one benzi-meter,” goes the refrain.
From Jesse and Oghara to Sapele, Abraka, Warri and Ughelli, incidents of ritual killings and internet fraud are prevalent. There are unconfirmed reports that Jesse community is the unofficial headquarters of Yahoo-Yahoo in the state. But the notoriety of Yahoo boys transcends Delta State, with reports that a street in Ghana, where many Yahoo boys go to learn the ropes and also acquire dark powers for the purpose of their illicit trade, has been named Jesse Street, no thanks to the fact that it provides residence and cover for internet fraudsters from Nigeria, especially the ones from Jesse community.
At some point, a particular area of Oghara town known as Scot had a new case of ritual murder every two weeks; a situation that sparked fears within the academic communities of Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe, Oghara and Western Delta University.
“There was a time in Oghara when moving around at night became a problem,” a student in the Mass Communications Department of Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe, who preferred anonymity, lamented as he narrated the ordeal that came with living in the town at the height of the reign of notorious Yahoo boys.
“Besides the fear they stir in people, they are a major distraction because many girls sell themselves cheap for money and so-called flexing to these boys. So instead of reading and living the life they were sent to Otefe to live, many girls spend most of their time in hotels with ‘G boys’, drinking and partying.”
“Then there is the issue of pant thieves. Although it never happened to me or any of my friends, we hear stories of how some girls have been harassed because some boys wanted to take their pants by force. I won’t dare go to class at night to read.
“For now, however, those stories are not common again. But for me, being careful is important.”
A final year student of Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, who identified himself simply as Elohor, noted that calm had returned to the university town since security agents focused attention on the town and DELSU in particular in the aftermath of the murder of Elozino.
Relative peace after crackdown
The crackdown on Yahoo boys in the university was said to have yielded the arrest of the masterminds of the murder as well as their native doctor who demanded female genitals and other vital human organs from them.
The crackdown has since been expanded to other notorious enclaves of Yahoo boys in the state, and this has been adduced as the main reason for the prevailing relative peace in the state.
Describing the mood in Abraka and the university environment, Elohor said: “It has been long since I heard stories like that in Abraka. I think most of the guys involved in it have relocated away from the school and the town.
“I believe the relative peace we now enjoy is a result of the activities of the police and officials of the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission). They have arrested many of them and that has really scared them.
“The feeling in Abraka now is that of relief. I have not also heard of pant robbery in a long while. The last I heard of that was some time in January when a girl wrote on the WhatsApp platform about one of her neighbours who was robbed of her pant at gunpoint.
“There’s real calm and security now. If anything like that is still happening, they must have really coded it. But I also know that victims of such experiences would not hide it from the public. So, I think that era is gone for good.”
However, there is still a section of the society which believes that everybody, including the government, has handled the situation wrongly.
An evil that won’t abate
A Warri-based public affairs analyst, Mr. Felix Ogbomah, said the criminal trend may never stop as it has found a lifeline in society’s connivance. Ogbomah, who lamented the failure of parents to step in and rebuke the vice when it first surfaced, said just like all other illicit means of making money, those involved should be expected to embrace whatever form of hurdle of resistance that organised institutions would place before them.
According to him, “kidnapping, oil theft, armed robbery and all other forms of criminal means of making money came at one point or the other. And despite all efforts to stop them, either through psychological or physical means, criminals have continued to persist because these unspeakable activities bring them returns. “Likewise this one, we will be deceiving ourselves if we think we have seen the last of it. We started wrong with it.
“This criminal way of life may never go away. I said so because I see too much of acceptance and justification for it by the society. I don’t know if you have spoken to any of these young people about this Yahoo-Yahoo thing to sound them out. You will be shocked when you hear their general view.
“This is especially so with girls who you will find out are girlfriends of those of them who are Yahoo boys. You will hear things like ‘there’s nothing criminal about it, they are just collecting back what the white people took from our forefathers.’
“It becomes most sickening when you realise that Yahoo-Yahoo is not just about campus boys and girls but even vulcanizers, carpenters and people without any form of formal or informal training. Everybody just wants to get rich.
“The parents of some of those I have seen are also a big part of this social breakdown. Can you imagine parents of a boy without any visible income source saying with so much pride that their son has bought an expensive car? No reprimand, no questions. As a matter of fact, they will gladly ask such son to buy them their own as fast as possible.
“I know of a family, I won’t mention the name because I am very close to the father, though I have since reviewed my relationship with them because I consider their treatment of indecency in their family too irresponsible to condone.
“One of their sons, the stubborn one who has been known for always tracking the wrong trail, left home all of a sudden and started bringing things home without any visible means of income. He bought a car for their mother and set up a business for her.
“It is not like it is a bad thing for a son to do things for his parents; that is what we all pray for. But knowing that what your son does is illegal and you still partake of the proceeds of the illegality is what is unconscionable to me.
“This is just an example of how failed parentage has encouraged this evil to fester, and the more dangerous reason why I think this Yahoo-Yahoo thing has come to stay.
“The society is in connivance, and that is the only tonic any crime needs to survive.”
GovernorIfeanyi Okowa of Delta State yesterday in Asaba, the capital of the state, restated the commitment of his administration to tackle security challenges in the state.
The governor restated the commitment when he presented a cheque of N6million to the family of late Miss Elozino Ogege, a 300-level first class student of Mass Communication of the state university in Abraka.
The 22-year-girl was gruesomely murdered last November by suspected ritualists, otherwise known as Yahoo Plus Boys, who removed her vital organs.
Four of the suspects arrested in connection with the alleged murder are now facing trial at the state High Court.
Speaking while presenting the cheque, Okowa, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, David Edevwie, vowed that the perpetrators of the heinous crime would not go unpunished.
He decried the incidents that led to her murder, and assured that no stone would be left unturned in ensuring that the perpetuators were brought to justice.
“What happened to late Miss Elozino Ogege last year is so unfortunate and heartbreaking, which tells us that all is not well in our society. This is why we are doing everything possible, as a government, to improve security in the state and ensure that security challenges are effectively tackled,” he stressed.
The governor commiserated with the family of the deceased, and assured them of government’s support.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Mrs. Elizabeth Ogege and Rt. Rev. John Aruakpor, Bishop, Diocese of Oleh, Anglican Communion, thanked Okowa for the compassion showed to the family, and called on government to put more initiatives in place to tackle insecurity in the state.
Mustapha Aliyu, man who kills innocent children and sells off their heads
Published: June 22, 2019 By: Molly Kilete, Abuja
A 22-year-old man, Mustapha Aliyu, has landed in custody of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police for the gruesome murder and decapitation of a three-year-old boy for ritual purposes.
The three-year-old boy was the fifth victim the suspect had killed and beheaded before he was eventually caught.
The ritual head hunter was beaten to a pulp by resident of the area where had he killed the child victim identified as Usman Awalu. The deceased was said to be the child of a Fulani man resident at Rugan Fulani, close to Leleyi village in Kwali Area Council of the FCT.
But for the quick intervention of the police, the lynching of the murder suspect would have resulted in his death, with the village rallying after vigilantes caught him with a bag containing the fresh head of the innocent child.
Caught in the violence of the lynch mob, a policeman who led authorities to arrest the suspect is said to be lying critical ill in one of the area hospitals.
The suspect, who claimed he had made good money killing innocent children and chopping off their heads, confessed that he used the money to purchase lands and build houses in the area.
Though not unmarried and without children of his own, the suspect, who said he was looking forward to getting married, told this reporter that he would not like anyone to kill his child.
In the following interview, the suspect narrates how he went into the bloody head hunting ‘business’.
“My name is Mustapha Aliyu. I am 22-years-old and I am from Lele-Gwari village in Kwali Area Council.
“I got into the business of killing children though my master who asked me to go and cut human heads for him. I met my master after I went to meet him to assist me with money because I wanted to go to school, and he said ‘no problem’. After that he entertained me with rice and palm oil, and after I ate I started obeying his orders, I could not argue with him.”
“To start the killings, he equipped me with a machete, a cloth and charms; that was how I was recruited into killing innocent children.”
“He specifically asked me to bring heads of children for him and promised to give me N170,000, if I bring the head of a boy and N160,000 for that of a girl.
“My master gave me one charm with which I operate with whenever I go in search of my victims. All I do is put the charm on my hand and if I see any child I will just touch the child, and once I do that the child will just lose his or her senses and won’t be able to talk again; then I will take the child to a lonely place, push them to the ground and kill them with the machete and other things given to me by my master.”
“To separate the head from the body of the child, I usually hit the head two times, after which I will put the head in a bag and deliver to my master and he will give me the cash (payment) immediately.”
“So far I have killed four children, two boys and two girls, and this one was the fifth one before I was caught. Apart from the head, I don’t take anything from their bodies because that was the instruction my master gave me.
“My master bought me land for doing a good job and I have built houses with the money I made from the business. I am not afraid of sleeping in the house that I built using the blood of innocent children, I am happy with it.
“I am not yet married I am looking forward to getting married but honestly I will not be happy if somebody kills my child like this”used to pay me.”
I don’t know whether the term ‘genocide’ is appropriate here – but who am I to criticize the Malawian government? Nevertheless, the measure of the government provides a positive signal showing that it is serious in its efforts to protect people with albinism and at the same time willing to punish the culprits of these heinous crimes against innocent people born with this characteristic. However, as usual, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Hence, we await further actions of the government of `Malawi, notably removing the image of protecting high-placed people who are allegedly involved in these horrible practices. (The editor FVDK)
Published: July 3, 2019 By: Henry Mhango, Report Focus news
Albino killers in Malawi charged with genocide
Killers of persons with albnism in Malawi are from now being charged with genocide in addition to the murder charge.
This is a new approach taken by the government to eliminate the barbaric act which is leaving most of the victims in hiding , according to government legal resentatives.
The Southern African nation with a population of nearly 10 000 persons with albinism has seen an upsurge of ritual killings of the victims from 2014, a belief mostly being spread by witch doctors who claim that body parts of persons with Albinism have magical powers to bring luck in business, politics and other areas.
Firstly to be charged with the new offence are seven suspected killers of a 54 year old Yasin Phiri, who was brutally murdered in presence of his 9 year old son George,on the eve of new year, 31 December 2019.
The murderers invaded the victim’s house at night and broke into his bedroom through a window. They pounced on him , chopping off his both hands and legs before removing his intestines on the watch of his son.
A trumatised George was heavily beaten up when he querred the killers why they were slaughtering his father like chicken.
Chimwemwe Chithope Mwale , Lead Counsel for the state in the matter involving the seven suspects said the genocide charge comes in because the killers are attempting to extinct a population of persons with albnism.
“The state is of the view that the acts of killing persons with albnism are intended to wipe out of the race of the particular kind of people in this case the people with albinism,” he said.
He defended the new offence that it is in line with section 103 of the laws of Malawi.
“Indeed this is the first time we are charging the accused persons with genocide but this is an offence which is provided for by the laws of Malawi , and this is the new approach we are taking to eliminate such crimes,” he explained.
Dorothy De Gabriel , the High Court Judge handling the case immediately included the charge of which all the suspects pleaded not guilty.
Since 2014, the number of reported crimes against people with albnism in Malawi has risen close to 160 cases , including 15 murders and seven attempted murders, according to police figures .
Amnesty International, however, puts the death toll at 21.
The killings appear to be rising during elections, with most people linking it to politicians contesting in the elections.
Some suspects have even implicated government Senior officials in the crime but the implicated politicians have denied thier involvement . They are accusing the opposition political parties of funding the suspects to implicate them.
But the Amnesty International attributes impunity and delay in dealing with criminal cases involving persons with albnism as major factors fuelling the attacks against the victims in Malawi.
“The Malawi authorities must urgently overhaul the criminal justice system to protect people with albnism, who face the persistent threat if being killed for their body parts in a country where the vast majority of these horrific crimes remain unresolved and unpunished,” said Deprose Muchema, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southern Africa.
She expressed that “people with albnism deserve to see justice for these vile, hateful crimes against them . That it takes so long for cases to be investigated or heard in court, a sobering indictment of the systematic failures in Malawi’s criminal justice system.”
Is it a coincidence? In June 2019 two boys disappeared in Kingsville, Montserrado County, and were found back ‘with several parts missing’ – a common formulation used when a ritualistic murder is suspected. Montserrado County was preparing for elections to be held the following month, on July 29. By-elections were slated to fill the vacancies created by the deaths of senator Geraldine Doe Sheriff, and District #15 representative Adolph Akwe Lawrence.
Is there any relation between the by-elections and the ritualistic death of the two boys, Elijah Porluma, 9 and Thomas Kollie, 10?
It is too gruesome to think that the by-elections have anything to do with the suspected ritual murder of the two boys. Moreover, according to one of the residents, Fayiah Dumbo, ritual killing is rampant in their town and – when it happens – the police usually claims the lack of sufficient evidence as a basis to drop charges against suspects involved in ritual killing.
The history of ritualistic murders in Liberia goes back a very long time but we are now living in the 3rd millennium. When will the Liberian Government take adequate measures to arrest the culprits of these heinous crimes and stop the killing of innocent people? Or are indeed ‘big shots’ involved who manage to escape from justice?
When will it end? (Website editor FVDK)
rmed police on the scene in Kingsville Number 7 Community and fired several rounds of ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, who retaliated by throwing stones at the police.
Published: Jun 25, 2019 By: Joaquin M. Sendolo – The Daily Observer
Angry residents block Kakata-Monrovia highway, as Police fire live rounds to disperse crowd
Number 7 Kingsville, Montserrado County, was a scene of rioting on Monday, June 24, 2019 when aggrieved citizens of the town gathered and blocked the main road from Red-Light to Kakata in demand for justice for two boys, Elijah Porluma, 9 and Thomas Kollie, 10, who were reportedly abducted and later killed allegedly for ritual purposes early this month.
It began without violence during the morning hours when local residents blocked the traffic in what they said was an attempt to draw the government’s attention to perceived injustice given what they see as the lack of appropriate Police response to the killing of the two boys; later, it turned violent when a few officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP) sent to contain the situation began using force to disperse the demonstrators to restore the free flow of traffic.
The demonstrators were holding aloft placards bearing inscriptions that read, “We want justice,” as they occupied the middle of the road with themselves and abandoned pieces of timber and metallic objects used to set up the roadblock.
According to eyewitness accounts, the police at first spoke to the aggrieved residents to allow the free movement of vehicular traffic, but they refused.
“If we will die like the children who were killed, we will die; but we cannot leave this place until justice is done,” they declared.
Following the failure of the Police to convince the protesters to disperse, they regrouped and advanced towards the protesters in a tactical move, which succeeded in dispersing them. As the LNP officers attempted to remove the roadblocks, they were greeted by a hail of stones and other flying objects, which provoked the discharge of firearms (AK-47s) using live ammunition.
“While responding officers of the LNP were trying to remove the road blocks and illegal checkpoints from the Kakata Highway,” said a statement signed by LNP director of public affiars, H. Moses Carter, “they were stiffly resisted with stone throwing protestors and the use of other dangerous weapons including steel rods and petrol bombs which resulted in the injuries of three residents of Kingsville including: Saah Saah, 18, Dave Mombo, 18, and Abraham Tumba, 17 years old, all of the same community. Also, two officers, namely: Insp. Morris Dahn, and Sgt. Gbornimah Barmabia sustained head and leg injuries. Those who sustained injuries are said to be responding to treatment at the Du-Side Hospital in Margibi County and the John F. Kennedy Medical hospital in Monrovia.”
An eyewitness report says one person identified as Abraham Smith was shot dead in the incident, while another suggests that he was instead shot and severely wounded in leg but was not killed. Both reports are yet to be independently confirmed. It was, however, confirmed that a stone hit one of the police officers and he was seriously injured in his face.
The LNP says it has “launched an immediate joint investigation comprising the Professional Standards Division (PSD) and the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) to probe into reports of shooting. The public can be assured that any officer found culpable in the unconventional use of lethal weapon will be made to face the full weight of the law.”
After hours of rioting, the few police officers left the scene thus, leaving the aggrieved residents in total control of the road until some senior police officers accompanied by reinforcements from Monrovia arrived and contained the situation. This led to resumption of the flow of traffic at about 2:56 p.m.
Fayiah Dumbo, an elderly man living in Number 7, explained that early this month the two boys, whose brutal killing sparked the riot, were abducted and taken to the bush at the outskirts of the town and were killed on land belonging to another resident he did not name.
“They took the two boys, one 9 and the other 10, down the town in the bush and killed them. The doers skinned one of them and cut the private parts, and they took the nose, lip and one eye of the other boy along with his kidneys,” Fayiah said.
According to the LNP statement, the bodies of the two children were discovered on June 3, 2019 in the bushes of Kingsville, Montserrado County, after they were sent on Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31, 2019 by their parents to sell but did not return home and were declared missing.
When the corpses of the victims were discovered, Fayiah said forensic examinations were done and four persons were arrested that included three prime suspects and the owner of the land on which the bodies were discovered. He explained further that the three arrested suspects, all men, were released and residents expressed concern that their release was done by the police and not the court.
“The police people came and gave us a paper that the bodies should be buried and that was done, but the three people are freed without facing justice in the court except this old papay who is still in jail because it is behind his house the act was done. This is why we are here today because we want the three men rearrested to face justice in the court and not the police to decide,” Fayiah said.
Fayiah said they will only be content if the men go through court trial and exonerate themselves, but their release from detention without the court’s mandate constitutes injustice and they will not stop their protest action until they can get redress.
According to him, ritual killing (otherwise known as heart-man activity) is rampant in their town and, when it happens, the government (police) usually claims the lack of sufficient evidence as a basis to drop charges against suspects involved in ritual killing.
“I have spent 15 years here, and since I came there have been many heart-man cases that ended like this,” he said.
The riot in Number 7, Kingsville, is the second of such violent incidents recently on this trunk of paved motor road leading to the country’s interior. It can be recalled that on April 1, riot broke out between the police and aggrieved residents of Weala over ritual killing and the police depot was burned while the house of the accused was damaged in part.
In the villages of Uganda a new breed of witch doctors is hunting and kidnapping children to cut off their ears, noses and genitals. Often the witch doctors decapitate the boys or remove whole arms and legs of victims. Witch doctor Kivumbi Awali is pictured after his arrest
Ritual killing of children by witch doctors takes place in Uganda, in East Africa
Body parts, blood or tissue are removed from boys and girls while they are alive
Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga saves mutilated victims and hunts the witch doctors
His work is partly funded by generous donations from a small Australian charity
In the villages of Uganda a new breed of witch doctor is hunting and kidnapping children to cut off their ears, noses and genitals.
Sometimes the medicine men remove whole arms and legs or drain blood from a boy or girl’s body while the victim is still alive.
Sometimes the victim’s parents help decapitate their child.
Human sacrifice is not some ancient cultural ritual practised in this east African country, rather it is a barbaric modern way for cruel charlatans to make money.
Children in rural Uganda are kidnapped by witch doctors who torture and often murder them as part of a supposed spiritual sacrifice.
The witch doctors mutilate the children and use their blood, tissue or organs in rituals they promise can bring clients protection, prosperity and good health.
Child sacrifice survivor Allan Ssembatya was set upon in a Ugandan village called Busolo in 2009. ‘My son was coming home from school,’ his father says. ‘They took him to the bush. They cut him. This cut on his head, this cut on his neck, damage to his private parts…’
In one of the most macabre practices to have developed, children are decapitated and their heads buried in new building foundations to bring success to businesses.
Fighting this terrible trade is pastor Peter Sewakiryanga who saves children scarred by ritual mutilation, and helping him is a small group of Australians.
Pastor Peter, a former accountant, started campaigning against child sacrifice about a decade ago and runs charity Kyampisi Childcare Ministries.
He helps rehabilitate survivors and raise awareness of the practice, working with politicians, police, prosecutors and judges to bring offenders to justice.
Pastor Peter’s work features in an episode of the SBS program Dateline called How to Catch a Witch Doctor to air on Tuesday night.
The program follows Pastor Peter and Brisbane civil engineer Rodney Callanan as they hunt for a witch doctor who allegedly almost killed six-year-old Allan Ssembatya ten years ago.
Reporter Amos Roberts speaks to Allan’s father Hudson Semwanga about what happened to his boy in a village called Busolo in the district of Kayunga on October 21, 2009.
Justice Margaret Mutonyi is pictured with a girl whose hands have been cut off. ‘We have a society that believes in witchcraft,’ she tells the SBS program Dateline. ‘The majority of the population including Christians who go to church, they consult these witch doctors’Robert Mukwaya suffered spinal injuries so serious it was thought he would never walk again. He had been snoozing in his grandmother’s kitchen in a village near Lake Victoria when a man dragged him out of the room and stabbed him in the neck. He underwent surgery in Australia
‘My son was coming home from school,’ Mr Semwanga says. ‘They took him to the bush. They cut him.
‘This cut on his head, this cut on his neck, damage to his private parts, in my view it’s very surprising that Allan is alive.
‘What hurts me the most is that they were people that knew me really well, I grew up with them, I went to school with them. We used to treat each other as family.’
One of the two men accused of kidnapping and cutting up Allan is witch doctor Kivumbi Awali, who was secretly filmed by a BBC crew in 2011.
The crew posed as members of a construction company looking for a witch doctor who could bring their business prosperity.
They were introduced to Awali, who killed a goat for good luck at their first meeting, then a few days later explained what he said was his most powerful spell: human sacrifice.
Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga holding Hope, a young victim of child sacrifice. ‘They prey on the desperation of the people who are sick and are poor,’ Pastor Peter told Daily Mail Australia. ‘Even the elite who live in the city and are rich are now engaged’ Rodney Callanan, from the Brisbane charity Droplets In A Stream, helps fund the pursuit of Ugandan witch doctors who have not been brought to justice. ‘Unfortunately, the police, the courts in Uganda are grossly underfunded,’ Mr Callanan tells Dateline
‘There are two ways of doing this,’ Awali was recorded telling the bogus businessmen. ‘We can bury the child alive on your construction site.’
‘Or we cut the child, and put their blood in a bottle of spiritual medicine. If it’s a male, the whole head is cut off, and his genitals.’
When Awali was finally arrested by police in the company of Pastor Peter and Mr Callanan he had a machete in his custody. As he was led away he complained his handcuffs were too tight.
Awali was charged with attempted murder and aggravated trafficking.
His case is still before the courts and if convicted he could face a death sentence or life in jail.
Allan is one of five child victims of human sacrifice Pastor Peter has helped bring to Australia for life-changing surgery.
‘Sometimes it’s difficult to talk about what happened to me,’ the now 16-year-old tells Dateline. ‘And sometimes when I talk about it I start crying.
‘I remember the injuries I got, I remember when I was taken, I tried to struggle to run, they hit me up and they did whatever they wanted. So when I think about it I cry.’
Pastor Peter is supported by a Brisbane-based charity called Droplets In A Stream which provides education and health care opportunities to victims of child sacrifice who survive.
A witch doctor advertises his work outside his house in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. ‘A traditional healer with powers over spirits solves all cases, demons, thieves, tooth decay, madness, fevers, appelipse, genital affairs’.
Doctors at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital and Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Private Hospital have operated on rescued children free of charge.
‘Australia has been so kind,’ Pastor Peter said. ‘These children would otherwise be dead.’
Witch doctors practising child sacrifice are motivated solely by money but pretend to be adhering to cultural beliefs to justify their crimes.
‘They prey on the desperation of the people who are sick and are poor,’ Pastor Peter told Daily Mail Australia. ‘Even the elite who live in the city and are rich are now engaged.
‘The problem is a national issue. It started in poor pockets of the community. Now it’s widespread.
‘It has crossed boundaries into families killing their own children.’
The extent of this trade is hard to judge but Pastor Peter says he works with between 20 and 25 cases each year.
‘The issue is done under such secrecy it’s hard to estimate numbers. I can trace it to ten to 15 years ago.’
Balluonzima Christ (left) and Rose Ajiba (right) hold a photograph of their daughter Caroline Aya, who was allegedly killed in a sacrificial ceremony in the town of Jinja in southern Uganda
‘It’s not part of our culture. It hides in our culture. It must be condemned.’
Droplets In A Stream, which Mr Callanan co-founded, also helps fund the pursuit of witch doctors who have not been brought to justice.
‘Unfortunately, the police, the courts in Uganda are grossly underfunded,’ Mr Callanan tells Dateline.
‘Many cases actually don’t go to court or to trial because of lack of funding. And that’s one of our biggest roles in this area and that’s financial support.’
Judge Margaret Mutonyi tells the program: ‘We have a society that believes in witchcraft.’
‘The majority of the population including Christians who go to church, they consult these witch doctors.’
Paul Odida, a repentant witch doctor, now helps Pastor Paul raise awareness of the issue of human sacrifice. He visits villages to explain how the witch doctors instill fear in communities
In one scene Pastor Peter examines photographs of a boy approximately ten years old whose body was found dumped in the bush.
‘So they cut off the ears, they cut through the neck and cut out the throat and cut off the limbs,’ he says. ‘Body parts were missing. The tongue, the legs, the genitals.’
The program also features Robert Mukwaya who in 2014 suffered spinal injuries so serious it was thought he would never walk again.
Robert had been snoozing in his grandmother’s kitchen in a village near Lake Victoria when a man dragged him out of the room and stabbed him in the neck.
He was left paralysed but surgery at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital two years ago has allowed him to regain the use of his legs.
In another scene Pastor Peter and Mr Callanan visit a village to warn about the practice of child sacrifice.
‘Why we are here is we heard of a story of a child who was sacrificed here and unfortunately the people that kill these children are among us,’ Pastor Peter says.
‘Please, if you know who killed our child, just come and tell us, call the number, we will even put a reward. Please don’t fear. If you fear, next time it will be your child.’
How To Catch A Witch Doctor airs on Dateline on Tuesday, June 25 at 9.30pm on SBS. It can be watched later on SBS On Demand.
Allan Ssembatya (left) with father Hudson and Pastor Peter (right) after learning of one of his alleged attackers, Kivumbi Awali, has been arrested
Executive director of Kyampisi Childcare Ministries in Mukono, Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga (M) receives a financial boost for his efforts to end Child sacrifice in Uganda during The Entrepreneurial Business School (EBS) Gala Charity Awards Dinner in Australia (Courtesy Photo)
Pastor receives funding boost for iconic rehab centre for child sacrifice survivors
Together, we will end child sacrifice, Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga says.
Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga who runs Kyampisi Childcare Ministries, a Christian charity seeking to stamp out child sacrifice in Uganda, has received a cash donation of $134,225 (approximately Ush491 million) for a rehabilitation centre expected to be a safe place for children who have been victims of child sacrifice and trafficking.
Pastor Peter received the funds from the Bruce Campbell Entrepreneurial Business School whose founder and Principal Business Coach, Mr Bruce Campbell, has been extensively awarded for his work through various international bodies.
This happened in Australia over the weekend.
“We are humbled by the incredible continuous support of the Bruce Campbell Entrepreneurial Business School,” Kyampisi Childcare Ministries said in an update on Sunday.
“Thank you for this generosity, partnering with us in our efforts to build a new Trauma Rehabilitation Centre for kids abused through Child sacrifice and trafficking. What a community full of love and compassion. Together we will End Child Sacrifice,” they added.
Pastor Peter takes care of several child survivors of trafficking and human sacrifice and has built an extensive network linking communities and security to track suspected cases.
In his remarks earlier in March, Mr Bruce Campbell said, “This will be the largest rehab centre of its kind in Uganda (& maybe Africa). So honored to be a board member and help guiding this life changing organisation.”
The organisation, Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM) condemns witch doctors’ brutal ritual of child sacrifice, and has brought to books several culprits this year in the capital of Kampala alone.
In his recent interview with local media, Pastor Peter explained that victims of child sacrifice in Uganda carry with them serious and disturbing life scars and injuries which include complete genital mutilations, castration, deep stab wounds, missing tongues, ears, as well as emotional and psychological scars that need life time healing.
Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga (Courtesy Photo)
Working each day to bring Christ’s hope and healing to these children, Sewakiryanga’s devotion to the cause in 2017 attracted The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) who during an interview with the preacher, joined undercover detectives and armed police in a hunt for witch doctors accused of kidnapping and killing children.
“When they get the child, most times they cut the neck, they take the blood out, they take the tissue, they cut the genitals or any other body organs that they wish that the spirits want.” Pr Sewakiryanga said.
Child body parts are especially prized in rituals because people believe mixing their blood with herbs makes a strong concoction that can cure diseases and appease local spirits. Genitalia are especially prized.
“The problem is increasing and many children are killed, and there are very few actually that survive, most of them die.” Pr Sewakiryanga added.
According to CBN News, Kyampisi Childcare Ministries is the only organization in the country providing long-term financial and medical care to survivors of child sacrifice.
“We want to see that the life of a child who has survived is supported, that they are socially able to stand and heal from the injuries, and that they can have a life after that,” said Pastor Sewakiryanga.
He also works with Ugandan lawmakers to help draft specific laws targeting perpetrators of child sacrifice.
In 2018, Pastor Peter was one of two Ugandan activists recognised by The European Union (EU) for their tireless campaign to stop child trafficking.
He was credited for championing research and spearheading an awareness campaign in communities to stop the crime.
In the villages of Uganda a new breed of witch doctor is hunting and kidnapping children to cut off their ears, noses and genitals.
Sometimes the medicine men remove whole arms and legs or drain blood from a boy or girl’s body while the victim is still alive.
Sometimes the victim’s parents help decapitate their child.
Human sacrifice is not some ancient cultural ritual practised in this east African country, rather it is a barbaric modern way for cruel charlatans to make money.
Children in rural Uganda are kidnapped by witch doctors who torture and often murder them as part of a supposed spiritual sacrifice.
The witch doctors mutilate the children and use their blood, tissue or organs in rituals they promise can bring clients protection, prosperity and good health.
In one of the most macabre practices to have developed, children are decapitated and their heads buried in new building foundations to bring success to businesses.
Fighting this terrible trade is pastor Peter Sewakiryanga who saves children scarred by ritual mutilation, and helping him is a small group of Australians.
Pastor Peter, a former accountant, started campaigning against child sacrifice about a decade ago and runs charity Kyampisi Childcare Ministries.
He helps rehabilitate survivors and raise awareness of the practice, working with politicians, police, prosecutors and judges to bring offenders to justice.
Pastor Peter’s work features in an episode of the SBS program Dateline called How to Catch a Witch Doctor to air on Tuesday night.
The program follows Pastor Peter and Brisbane civil engineer Rodney Callanan as they hunt for a witch doctor who allegedly almost killed six-year-old Allan Ssembatya ten years ago.
Reporter Amos Roberts speaks to Allan’s father Hudson Semwanga about what happened to his boy in a village called Busolo in the district of Kayunga on October 21, 2009.
‘My son was coming home from school,’ Mr Semwanga says. ‘They took him to the bush. They cut him.
‘This cut on his head, this cut on his neck, damage to his private parts, in my view it’s very surprising that Allan is alive.
‘What hurts me the most is that they were people that knew me really well, I grew up with them, I went to school with them. We used to treat each other as family.’
One of the two men accused of kidnapping and cutting up Allan is witch doctor Kivumbi Awali, who was secretly filmed by a BBC crew in 2011.
The crew posed as members of a construction company looking for a witch doctor who could bring their business prosperity.
They were introduced to Awali, who killed a goat for good luck at their first meeting, then a few days later explained what he said was his most powerful spell: human sacrifice.
‘There are two ways of doing this,’ Awali was recorded telling the bogus businessmen. ‘We can bury the child alive on your construction site.’
‘Or we cut the child, and put their blood in a bottle of spiritual medicine. If it’s a male, the whole head is cut off, and his genitals.’
When Awali was finally arrested by police in the company of Pastor Peter and Mr Callanan he had a machete in his custody. As he was led away he complained his handcuffs were too tight.
Awali was charged with attempted murder and aggravated trafficking.
His case is still before the courts and if convicted he could face a death sentence or life in jail.
Allan is one of five child victims of human sacrifice Pastor Peter has helped bring to Australia for life-changing surgery.
‘Sometimes it’s difficult to talk about what happened to me,’ the now 16-year-old tells Dateline. ‘And sometimes when I talk about it I start crying.
‘I remember the injuries I got, I remember when I was taken, I tried to struggle to run, they hit me up and they did whatever they wanted. So when I think about it I cry.’
Pastor Peter is supported by a Brisbane-based charity called Droplets In A Stream which provides education and health care opportunities to victims of child sacrifice who survive.
Doctors at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital and Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Private Hospital have operated on rescued children free of charge.
‘Australia has been so kind,’ Pastor Peter said. ‘These children would otherwise be dead.’
Witch doctors practising child sacrifice are motivated solely by money but pretend to be adhering to cultural beliefs to justify their crimes.
‘They prey on the desperation of the people who are sick and are poor,’ Pastor Peter told Daily Mail Australia. ‘Even the elite who live in the city and are rich are now engaged.
‘The problem is a national issue. It started in poor pockets of the community. Now it’s widespread.
‘It has crossed boundaries into families killing their own children.’
The extent of this trade is hard to judge but Pastor Peter says he works with between 20 and 25 cases each year.
‘The issue is done under such secrecy it’s hard to estimate numbers. I can trace it to ten to 15 years ago.’
‘It’s not part of our culture. It hides in our culture. It must be condemned.’
Droplets In A Stream, which Mr Callanan co-founded, also helps fund the pursuit of witch doctors who have not been brought to justice.
‘Unfortunately, the police, the courts in Uganda are grossly underfunded,’ Mr Callanan tells Dateline.
‘Many cases actually don’t go to court or to trial because of lack of funding. And that’s one of our biggest roles in this area and that’s financial support.’
Judge Margaret Mutonyi tells the program: ‘We have a society that believes in witchcraft.’
‘The majority of the population including Christians who go to church, they consult these witch doctors.’
In one scene Pastor Peter examines photographs of a boy approximately ten years old whose body was found dumped in the bush.
‘So they cut off the ears, they cut through the neck and cut out the throat and cut off the limbs,’ he says. ‘Body parts were missing. The tongue, the legs, the genitals.’
The program also features Robert Mukwaya who in 2014 suffered spinal injuries so serious it was thought he would never walk again.
Robert had been snoozing in his grandmother’s kitchen in a village near Lake Victoria when a man dragged him out of the room and stabbed him in the neck.
He was left paralysed but surgery at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital two years ago has allowed him to regain the use of his legs.
In another scene Pastor Peter and Mr Callanan visit a village to warn about the practice of child sacrifice.
‘Why we are here is we heard of a story of a child who was sacrificed here and unfortunately the people that kill these children are among us,’ Pastor Peter says.
‘Please, if you know who killed our child, just come and tell us, call the number, we will even put a reward. Please don’t fear. If you fear, next time it will be your child.’
How To Catch A Witch Doctor airs on Dateline on Tuesday, June 25 at 9.30pm on SBS. It can be watched later on SBS On Demand.
There is a difference between ritualistic murders which are intended to gain more wealth and/or prestige or increase one’s chances to win elections and the cold-blooded murdering of people to sell their body parts. However, both types of crime have in common that the murdering of innocent people is based on the superstition that the juju or muti which result from these heinous practices works. The following example illustrates this. (The editor FVDK).
Published: July 5, 2019 By: ZimEye
A 24-year-old man from Chimanimani who killed a fellow villager and harvested body parts for ritual purposes has been slapped with a life jail sentence after he was found guilty of committing murder with actual intent.
The suspect, Victor Dinga of Munaka Village under Chief Chikukwa, showed no remorse since the trial began. He struck the victim with a machete, took several body parts which he then placed in a bag and later asked his brother-in-law to refrigerate.
While reading out the sentence, Senior Mutare High Court Judge, Justice Hlekani Mwayera, said Dinga was supposed to hang for committing the crime and was only lucky due to the ongoing debate around the death sentence.
During trial Dinga left court officials in a state of disbelief as he gave a chilling account on how he committed the grisly murder.
He told the court that he planned the murder because he wanted to sell the body parts in South Africa and then buy a house and a car from the proceeds.
However, his plan hit a brick wall after his brother-in-law refused to refrigerate the body parts and subsequently sold him out to the police.
Ms Jane-Rose Matsikidze prosecuted.
“Dinga and the deceased Cephas Mubarenyana lived in seperate villages and the deceased stayed alone,” she said.
“On September 24 last year in the morning, the accused person approached the deceased at his home and asked him to help carry some planks from Martin Forests for a fee. Unknown to the deceased, the suspect had a machete hidden inside his pair of trousers.”
On arrival in Martin Forest, the accused suddenly pulled out the machete and struck the deceased on the neck and above the left ear, killing him instantly.
He then dragged the deceased’s body into a bush before proceeding to harvest certain body parts. He took the body parts to Chikukwa Business Centre where he asked his brother-in-law, Aaron Mashava, to refrigerate them for him.
“Having refused to refrigerate the human body parts, the brother-in-law later mobilised other villagers leading to the recovery of the body parts and the arrest of the suspect. A post-mortem examination concluded that the death was as a result of severe head injury and exsanguinations,” said Ms Matsikidze.
Mashava told the court that he was inside his shop when the suspect approached him asking him to refrigerate the bag containing the body parts.
He became curious when the suspect told him that the bag should not be opened. On being asked about its contents, the suspect told him that it contained human body parts.
Suspecting that the accused person had killed a person, Mashava informed his neighbour who in turn called the councillor and the trio then approached Constable Blessing Muroda.
The quartet went to the suspect’s house where he led them to a disused toilet where the bag and its contents were hung.
