In Nigeria, five individuals have been sentenced to 12 years in prison each for their involvement in exhuming a human skull with the intention of using it in rituals to attain wealth.
The men, who were caught with the skull in a bag, confessed to their actions. According to the prosecutor, they had dug up a body buried three years earlier in a Muslim cemetery in the north-central Niger state.
They had been directed by a traditional doctor who claimed that the skull was necessary for rituals that would bring them riches.
The men, aged between 18 and 28, were apprehended by security officers in early September as they were transporting the human remains to a third party as per the traditional doctor’s instructions.
A court in Minna, the capital of Niger state, found them guilty of criminal conspiracy, trespassing on burial grounds, and unlawfully possessing a human skull.
Notably, the traditional doctor involved was not arrested or charged.
Belief in practices often referred to as “juju,” involving elements of voodoo or magic, is relatively common in Nigeria, and many individuals combine these beliefs with either Christianity or Islam.
These beliefs have been linked to a series of gruesome murders in Nigeria, often targeting vulnerable individuals such as children, single women, and people with disabilities.
Local authorities have also reported the sale and use of body parts in rituals believed to bring wealth.
The pursuit of wealth through rituals in Nigeria is further fueled by increasing economic desperation in a country where a significant portion of the population lives in poverty, as per World Bank data.
Source-BBC
