By Uzair Adam Imam
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in Lagos State have arrested a fifty-one year-old man, Mr. Poni Bada, for attempting to use his son for ritual.
The man recounted how he lured his 9-year-old child and took him before a habalist to be sacrificed for money rituals because of the rising inflation which resulted to a bitting economic hardship in the country.
The man said he had ten children from three wives but he can not feed himself, let alone feeding them.
He stated that looking at the way things kept changing from bad to worse, he decided to use the 9-year-old kid, Agbe, who is his last child for a money ritual so that he could train the other children and have better living conditions.
However, the child was rescued when a team of policemen from the Zone 2 Command, Onikan Lagos, who acted on intelligence, stormed the herbalist’s shrine and arrested the man and other suspects.
Explaining how he came up with the idea of using his son for money rituals, the father of the boy, Bada, said: “I have 10 children from three wives.
“The situation of things kept going from bad to worse. I could not feed my children. I then decided to use my last child, Agbe, for a money ritual, so that I could train the other children and have better living conditions.
“In May 2023, I left my home town in Jakotome, Benin Republic for Nigeria, to visit my brother, Benjamin Balobi, at Ilaro, Ogun State, who earlier told me he was doing well as a farmer and that the owner of a farmland was looking for labourers.
“That was how I brought Agbe to Nigeria to work. But the thought of using him for a money ritual came up when I realized that the money paid as salary to my son was very poor.
“I told Balobi to help me get a herbalist that would help me with the money rituals; he said he knew no one but promised to help me find a herbalist who might have information on it.
“He informed Ige Koshelu (one of the suspects) who found someone that promised to take us to the herbalist’s place in Sango.
“But we were taken to another herbalist’s place in Owode, where we were arrested,” he stated.