Money Ritual: FG Gives New Directive To Filmmakers

The Federal Government has in a bid to discourage heinous acts by Nigerian citizens directed filmmakers to henceforth avoid money ritual contents in their movies.

Naija News reports that the directive was handed down on Monday by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.

The Minister while speaking in Abuja earlier today said a series of confessions by some money ritual suspects that they learnt the devilish act via social media have called for the desperate move by the government to monitor contents on social platforms.

Mohammed said many citizens have also blamed Nollywood for featuring money rituals in some of its movies, saying this has negatively influenced the vulnerable youth.

“To mitigate this, I have directed the National Film and Video Censors Board, the body set up to regulate the film and video industry in Nigeria, to take this issue into consideration while performing its role of censoring and classifying films and videos,” the Minister noted.

He added: “I have also directed NFVCB to engage with stakeholders in the film industry to express the concerns of the government and Nigerians on the need to eschew money ritual content in their movies.”

Mohammed stressed that President Muhammadu Buhari-led government won’t back out from seeing that the Internet space is scrutinized to ensure the positive use of social media.

Earlier, Mohammed said, “For those who may still be in doubt, ritual killings have assumed a worrisome dimension in recent years. Recently, in Ogun State, four young men, one of whom is 18 years old, murdered their 20-year-old female friend for money rituals.

“One of them said they learnt about using human parts for money rituals from social media. Of course, you are also aware of a case involving a female student of the University of Jos who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend for ritual purposes. These killings have been widely reported by the media.

“The fact that some of these ritualists said they learnt the money-making tricks from some social media platforms has given a further fillip to our campaign to rid social media of unwholesome content.”

The minister appealed to religious, traditional and political leaders to be part of efforts to reorientate youths to realise that success comes through hard work, not money rituals.