OF GIRL VICTIM AND BOY BEAST: RITUALIST STILL ON THE RAMPAGE- BY DR MUSTAPHA BELLO

Today while observing my daily quiet time after invigilating in the ongoing examination on the campus, my hand strayed to my phone and opening it I saw the picture of the Alfa Abdur Rahman the butcher as he was being led out of the Magistrate court where he was being tried for the gruesome murder of his girlfriend Hafsat. My mood changed and I opened my laptop to divert my attention from the bitterness that was already gathering storm in my mind in respect of the butcher Abdur Rahman. But, alas! The first file I opened was the piece below that I wrote in respect of a similar incident in December, 2019. Just as I prayed then, I also pray now to You Allah that all the sins and iniquities of Hafsat are transferred into the heavenly account of Abdur-Rahman as his inheritance so that she can meet You sinless and spotless! Happy reading! 

 

OF GIRL VICTIM AND BOY BEAST

Ordinarily I should be very happy today seeing many of my students across different departments in the Faculty joyfully engrossed in the symbolic signing out ceremony signaling the end of their 400 level exams preparatory to their official exit from the university. In fact, I am writing this piece from a classroom as my office has been taken over by some of them who are being dressed up by makeover artists in preparation for the signing out party. But I am not happy! In fact, my heart bleeds knowing that one of them had been denied this joyful opportunity by a callous boyfriend. The story of Favour Sewanu Daley Oladele (a 400 level Theatre Arts Student) and her killers is the trending news about my university for the past few days. While it can be said that she was as culpable as her killers, the truth is that in spite of her stupidity and daring attitude she does not deserve to die at all not to talk of dying in such a gruesome painful manner. That a loved one can conspire with others to make his supposed lover a sacrificial lamb for money making ritual speaks volume of the bastardization of trust in our society, particularly amongst our young generation. Or can anyone imagine a human being smashing the head of someone of his own like with heavy mortal, inflicting such excruciating blow, dismembering the body and removing the heart for consumption? What kind of a mother would lend a helping hand to his son to kill his girlfriend, rip her bowel open and partake in the eating of her heart in order to become rich? Can anyone fathom what was going through the minds of these killers why holding the pestle to smash her head? What a cruel way to kill and what a painful way to die? It can only take someone already divested of his humanness to carry out this kind of dastardly act. It is therefore no exaggeration that the Qur’an describes some men as worse than cattle (animals) in their heedlessness and wickedness.

Ours is a society under a very devastating moral siege and unfortunately religious practitioners (whether as leaders or followers) are making the matter worse. Several if not all the cases of ritual killings bear the imprint of religion. Whether as herbalists, pastors or alfas, religious clerics have become human butchers and harbingers of death. Is it not said that when a pot of soup starts giving a sour taste, one requires salt to remedy it but the question is when salt turns sour what remedy would be applied on it? The kind of sermons from both the altar and minbar these days is not comforting to the poor, the distressed and the traumatized because it is all about glorification of materialism and prosperity. Poverty or the state of lack is considered evil and as such adherents are driven into the rat race of unbridled acquisition of wealth through whatever means. Both the victim and her killers are manifestations of a moral and religious dysfunctional system accentuated by failure of governance. If religion is going to continue to be relevant, it must embark on an urgent mission of self-cleansing and self-regulatory. How the different religious groups are to go about this is not clear to me as I write because of the heavy pain in my heart as a father. Much as it keeps coming to my mind as I write this piece, it is difficult for me to blame failed parenting for the suicidal escapade of Favour. Rather, I share in the pains of her parent as a father. How I wish the cup of death was lifted off her but the will of the Almighty must be done so that someone would earn His Pleasure while others would earn His Eternal Damnation in Hellfire. O our God of Compelling Majesty! I pray to You that all the sins and iniquities of Favour are transferred into the heavenly account of her killers as their inheritance so that she can meet You sinless and spotless. O God of Unrestrained Capability! I pray that You open the eyes of our daughters to see the ugliness in the hearts of men beyond the deceitful facial disposition which conceal their evil intentions. None would reflect on this except men of understanding!

© IMAM MUSTAPHA ADEBAYO BELLO (PhD)

Director, Center for Theology and Spiritual Intelligence, Lagos State

- Nigeria