Ritualists have reportedly gone on the prowl in Abia, masquerading as employers of labour. Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abia State chapter, Sir Don Ubani, raised the alarm on the issue, challenging the police in the state to spread its intelligence dragnet to fish out the perpetrators.

Ubani, who is also the Executive Director, Centre for Equity and Eradication of Rural Poverty, equally cautioned unemployed persons against applying for advertised vacancies written or pasted on street walls, asking potential employees to apply in person or by calling telephone numbers included in the advertisement as they may end up being used for rituals.

Since 2015, it has become fashionable to see advertisements promising a salaries ranging from N2,000 daily to N30,000 or N40,000 per month as the case may be. Such advertisements dot the streets and major roads in Umuahia, the Abia State capital and Aba, the commercial hub of the state.

In a post on his Facebook page entitled “RITUAL FAKE EMPLOYERS ON THE

PROWL IN ABA, TIME FOR CAUTION”, Ubani, popularly known as Okwubunka of Asa, narrated the experience of an unnamed girl who escaped being used for rituals in the course of looking for a job. He urged the public, particularly graduates roaming the streets for job placements, to be very careful in choosing job adverts they respond to.

Below is his post, in which he pleaded with his Facebook friends to help in circulating to alert the public of the danger in town:

“As Nigeria’s economy dives deep and deeper into the turbulent sea of recession, risk to human lives is bound to be on the increase.

“Due to man’s natural inclination to wickedness, fraudsters and, more destructively, ritualists are out to take undue and, sometimes, extreme advantage of the hard times.

“Knowing that unemployment level in the society is unbearably high ritualists are now capitalising on the difficulties of the period to hoodwink young unemployed citizens.

“Before today, I had read a post on WhatsApp that warned job seekers to beware of unidentified persons or groups who claim to have job vacancies in Ogbor-Hill areas of Aba.

“According to the report, a young girl, in response to a street wall or roadside job advertisement, had called on the mobile phone number of the purported advertiser who asked her to get to Bata Junction by Ikot Ekpene road and call the same number, upon which a vehicle would be made available to convey her to the address of interview for the advertised vacancies.

“Led by the optimism that, probably, an opportunity to break the jinx of many years of unemployment was just at the corner, the young lady boarded the vehicle that had been provided at Bata.

“In furtherance of the story, the vehicle pulled up in a fenced premises in an undisclosed area in Ogbor-Hill. There, she saw many other young people who had been ‘ferried’ into the compound just the way she had arrived and each was going in for the ‘interview’ one by one.

“The girl in question, while waiting for her turn, however, became suspicious as none of the many persons who had gone in for the interview ever came out, at least, to narrate his or her experience.

“She, therefore, asked one of the persons she felt was a staff of the ‘company’, why none of the applicants that had gone for the interview was coming out?

“God is capable of using even an agent of Satan to save His own. It was at that juncture that the man told her that none of the applicants that had gone in for the interview would ever be seen again as they had been used for ritual purposes.

“There and then, the same agent of Satan managed to smuggle the lady out. To God be the glory.

“Today, Wednesday 25th January, 2017 while driving through a street at Aba, I saw an advertisement written with white chalk on a fence and asking people to apply for a job of two thousand naira per day.

“As soon as I sighted that, my mind spontaneously recollected what I had earlier read about Ogbor-Hill employment. I asked my driver to use his reverse gear to go back to the spot of the advertisement.

“Reading with rapt attention, I discovered that the advert was purporting to offer vacancies to people who would work and earn two thousand Naira on a daily basis. The advert requested interested applicants to call mobile phone number 09097034056.

“To be sure of my suspicion, I did not hesitate to call the number on my mobile phone. A female voice quickly received my call and demanded to know the subject-matter of my call.

“Upon telling her that I was interested in the vacancies her ‘company’ had, she asked me my educational qualification and job experience. I told her I had West African School Certificate but had no experience.

She asked me to get to Ikot-Ekpene road, opposite Eziama Police Station and call the same number, upon which the company would despatch a driver to come there and pick me up.

“My dear brothers and sisters, can we see the danger our children could be tempted to fall into?

“In a recession battered economy that is almost degenerating into depression, who would blame any young jobless man or woman, including graduates of many years standing, for responding and falling prey to such a snare?

“I have taken time to write this because I know the magnitude of danger our children could fall into if not properly informed and advised.

“I frankly plead with our young men and ladies never to respond to any advert that does not clearly indicate the office of the employers.

“Any advert that asks you to get to a place and call for conveyance by car or whatever means should not receive your attention. The sponsors of such adverts are ritual butchers of innocent beings.

“As for the Police and other security agencies, this is a major challenge to you. There is no way this volume of heinous crime could be taking place in Aba without your network of intelligence tracking it.

“If you would claim you are ignorant of this crime against humanity, please look around walls in Aba and you would find many of such adverts. As well trained and experienced Intelligence officers, breaking these gangs of ritual killers should not constitute a

Herculean task to you.

“As for my friends on Facebook, for the sake of humanity, I pray that you share this post. Who knows who will be the next victim?”

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