The media space is awash with a disturbing trend of youths being caught with human parts. It is becoming alarming as, almost on a regular basis, these young people are caught with severed human heads or skulls, presumably for ritual purposes.

At the start of this year, a 32-year-old man was apprehended for the murder of his alleged girlfriend, a 24-year-old member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, who served at Nicon Insurance in the Nation?s capital, Abuja, before her death.

Not long after, the police in Imo state, South-east Nigeria, arrested three crime suspects for allegedly having a human skull in Ogii, a community in Okigwe Local Government Area of the state.

In the same year, the Ogun state Community, Social Orientation, and Safety Corps, otherwise known as So-Safe Corps, apprehended 54-year-old Adelani Oriyomi at a burial ground in Kere, Obada-Oko, Abeokuta, Ogun State, while allegedly attempting to exhume a human skull.

These are some of the reported cases this year that we could capture.

Last year, in 2024, operatives of the Federal Capital Territory Police Command arrested a man identified as Nuhu Ezra with a human skull and bones in the Lugbe Area of the nation?s capital.

The suspect claimed he found the body parts while hunting in a bush in Kuje.

Same year, the Ondo State Police Command arrested a man, Yusuf Adenoyin, for being in possession of eight human skulls in Isua, the headquarters of the Akoko South-East Local Government.

Also, the Oyo State Police Command announced the arrest of two individuals for possessing a fresh human skull belonging to an unidentified woman in the Amuloko area of Ibadan, the state capital.

In 2023, five men were jailed for 12 years each after they were convicted of exhuming a human skull. They had planned to take it to a traditional medicine practitioner who said it was needed for rituals that would make them rich. The men pleaded guilty after being caught with the skull in a bag.

In 2023, the Niger State Police Command arrested five people in possession of a human skull.

The suspects confessed to the police that an Alfa sent them to bring the skull for money ritual purposes.

Spokesman of the command, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, who made this known in a statement said the whereabouts of the Alfa could not be ascertained.

This disgusting and worrisome behaviour among young persons seems to have become an industry of its own.

Indeed, in writing on this sad trend, it would seem as if killing for money or desecrating graves for human parts has become so commonplace and cheap.

The mindlessness of these supposed ritual killings is gradually being matched by an increasingly numb attitude amongst Nigerians on account of how rampant they have become.

Since the Clifford Orji days, which exposed the barbaric tendencies in society and robbed the nation of its innocence, the apprehension of persons with human body parts for whatever reason has increased rather than decreased.

Beyond the moral decay this increase reflects is the concern about the slow pace of legal processes, which often gives a sense of a lack of deterrence. Too many bizarre cases that ought to have been swiftly prosecuted tend to drag on, giving the impression that, perhaps, a suspect, no matter how bad his or her case, could just walk free when the spotlight shifts to another culprit and victim.

This has to change. People need to know that when they are caught, they will face swift justice. This will not only help ensure respect for the law or improve the country?s image but also stabilise the polity in the long run.

There is a serious need for orientation change among young people. From the get-rich-quick-at-any-cost mindset to the notion that crime pays, the Nigerian system needs to begin a reorientation programme that would make youths see the need for hard work, patience, and dedication. Programmes along this line could be introduced in the curriculum at every level of the educational system.

Clearly, a lot will be asked of the faith-based and traditional institutions as well as the family unit. As custodians of society?s social, moral and spiritual well-being, more effort should be made to instill and reaffirm strong moral codes in society.

However, this can be effective when leaders set good moral examples for the young. A situation where supposedly eminent individuals ? politicians, business executives, traditional rulers, religious leaders ? rape the system and get away with it sends the wrong message to the youths.

The government must provide the basic needs and environment for a good living. There has to be employment opportunities for the youth, affordable qualitative health care, access to sound education and housing.

It must also make policies that sustain what?s left of the middle class. It cannot continue to pay attention to only the ultra-wealthy. It must realise that policies that strangle the middle-class also affect the wellbeing of families contributing to the challenges that put a strain on the social fabric that once defined society as a whole. (LEADERSHIP Editorial)

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