The Nigerian Police Force has linked numerous cases of missing young women to ritual activities, which are becoming increasingly associated with the country’s expanding hookup culture.
Omolola Odutola, the Ogun State Command’s Public Relations Officer, said this during a Channels Television Morning Brief appearance on Wednesday.
During the discussion on “Hookup Culture: Impact on Youth Values and Relationships,” Odutola stated that young women between 20 and 32 are the most affected.
She further stated that many young people, particularly men, feel that ritual killings are a way to become wealthy.
“This particular menace is very serious, and I would like a lot of young people to understand the danger in the hookup culture. Today, we have lots of reports of missing persons. By the time we start an investigation, not less than 10 young girls and ladies go missing daily.
“In-depth investigations also reveal that those cases are not by accidents. Most of them are connected to hookup channels and apps. They fall victim to strangers who casually invite them to unknown places and eventually fall victim to being used for ritual purposes,” she said.
“Most cases of missing girls and ritual killings occurring in Ogun State of recent, I would like to say that it is not new. But as much as possible, the Ogun State Commissioner of Police has been able to tame these ugly incidents.”
The police PRO added, “It stems from the ugly perspective of young persons who believe that ritual killing could enrich them. We have some of these unscrupulous elements who deceive young people to get human skulls or human body parts, which they use for some kind of concoction to get them rich.
“That is why we are having advocacy and sensitisation, to enlighten young persons to make them understand that engaging in ritual killings does not in any way make them rich,” she said.
She stated that the police command is collaborating closely with the State Women Affairs Commission to tackle and curb the menace.
She stated, “The Ogun State government, particularly the Women Affairs Commission, works in tandem with the police command by providing counselling sessions.
“Apart from that, whenever we have cases such as this, if per adventure the girls escape the rituals, we also have a proper way of helping them go through the distress of mental health and anxiety they might have felt during the incident.
“The hookup culture is prevalent among young girls between the ages of 20 to about 32 years. The reason they get involved in this menace is because they feel they don’t get enough from their parents, and then the get-rich syndrome.”
Hookup culture refers to casual sexual interactions, such as one-night stands, that do not entail emotional attachment or long-term commitment.
Although this tendency has existed since the 1920s, it has become increasingly widespread and tolerated in recent years.
