Aside from paedophilia, another news trend that frequently makes the headlines in our country is the gale of Internet fraud (popularly known as “Yahoo Yahoo”) which has morphed into a raging tide of occult crimes – ranging from items of used clothing being stolen and re-sold for fetish purposes to grisly ritual murders.
These are indeed dangerous times when many people’s regard for human lives (even for family members, friends and lovers) has been completely eroded by an inordinate love for mad money.
I am aware of some African folks who sit in their Ivory Towers and dismiss such reports as urban legends. I am really not interested in convincing them to accept the reality of the supernatural anyway.
I always tell people that if these occult rites have not been working for people, they would have quit them a long time ago.
A study of ancient and modern occult-related crimes and rituals shows that virtually every culture appeases spirits in one form or the other for power and material wealth. Though their requirements and mode of operation differ.
The Nigerian lingo for Internet fraud mixed with occult ritual practices is “Yahoo plus-plus”.
The terms and conditions underlying such occult transactions boil down to offering human and animal parts to demon spirits in exchange for material prosperity.
Sometime in 2018, an Internet fraudster cum ritualist in Ghana, with the aid of graphic pictures, revealed the torment he has been enduring ever since he dabbled in his Faustian trade.
“The spiritualist also asked me to buy a pot, egg, bag and padlock and he will put the money in the pot for me and that the money will be okay for me to use after some few months,” he said.
“Since the day I brought the pot home, I do not feel free. I am being haunted and I can’t sleep till the next morning. It is always like I am being haunted by human beings, lions and fire. They appear physically and I don’t know what to do,” he lamented.
In another sad case in Ughelli, Delta State, a “Yahoo guy” in his 20s became insane and eventually committed suicide few weeks after throwing a lavish birthday party at a popular hotel in the town – spending thousands of naira on drinks for guests who attended his party.
A source revealed that, “All attempts to restrain him were fruitless as he charged at anyone that tried to restrain him [and] continued using the broken bottle on himself until he slumped and died,” a resident of the community stated.
“He ran away from the church his mother took him to the community town hall and started stabbing himself. The more sympathizers tried to stop him from continuously stabbing himself, the more he did so,” he added.
“In the last three years,” wrote Nosa Akenzua in Orient Daily News, “desperation and inordinate quest for quick money among the youths of Asaba and some top businessmen from all over the country has engendered horrendous sorrow, and even tragedy. This arises from their involvement in high-power ritual practices as the gateway to stupendous wealth.”
Many of the people in the aforementioned article throng the shrines of various pagan deities, particularly that of Onishe (Alanwanyi Asaba), a mother goddess whose shrine is situated along the banks of River Niger and is often depicted having gargantuan breasts, (said to symbolize fertility and abundance).
Every culture has a deity that is often tasked with bestowing wealth or fortune in exchange for all manner of votive offerings e.g. Yemoja, Ikenga, Lakshmi, Plutus, Ops, Fortuna, Gad, Jeng gu etc.
Many Wiccans cast such money spells using certain chants, candles, potions and energies drawn from the “Old Ones.”
In the words of Selah Towers, quoted in the New York Post, “Casting spells, I saw results. Usually, it was like — maybe I needed money or I needed a car. I needed love in my life. It was very selfish. It was all about what I wanted. I was really satisfied with my life.’”
In LaVeyan Satanism, this money ritual is called “compassion ritual.” An ancient demonic strongman that is invoked during satanic rites for wealth and is regarded as the treasurer of hell is called “Mammon.” Some Satanists call him “Zeus.”
According to former satanists, his base is in the water kingdom, and his visual representation is of a male figure having golden body parts.
The spirit of Mammon makes humans bow to money in the place of God. It leads their hearts away from God, sears their conscience to do anything to have wealth and ultimately leads them into destruction.
In African demonism, ritual culprits
also make use of women’s underwear or menstrual pads as Voodoo links wherein their victims’ womb and/or its products are offered to demons in exchange for wealth. In some cases, they utilise semen.
In a certain interview, a young man who self-identifies as a retired “Yahoo guy” admits that there are various forms of money-making rituals. One involves bathing in the public.
Another rite involves wiping of a lady’s vagina with a magickally “charged” material after sexual intercourse and there is also one in which the candidate must have sex with a girl after bathing with a local ritual soap.
Once he ejaculates into her, the lady won’t get pregnant again and if she does, she will miscarry. “That one too is very potent and many slay queens have been used for this but they don’t know yet!” he added.
“When I was active, the one I know that is 100 per cent [efficacious] is the one that you tie the person’s picture with thread and bury it beside the grave of a person whose gender is same as the person you want to hit … After the person sends you money, you must buy [a] ram and wear one tira [talisman] round its neck. The ram will die overnight.”
Satan and his demons always require human or animal sacrifices literally or symbolically for every covenant. There is no free gift in magick; it’s always by pact. It’s like the trade of Esau – giving you a plate of pottage but removing your entire birthright.
Evil spirits seduce people with promises of great wealth but what they offer is a counterfeit, diabolic wealth that ruins the lives of its recipients.
In the light of this desperation, we need to turn our attention to God’s Word:
1. It is only God who gives true material possession and will add other blessings that can’t be purchased with money to it.
“The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it” (Prov. 10:22 NLT).
But Satan is the chief distributor of the wealth of sorrow; wealth of torment; wealth of destruction – evil wealth that will ultimately lead one to Hell a place of everlasting sorrow.
True prosperity lies with God. And you can’t receive it unless you are in His kingdom and have His righteousness. Any wealth that is not received in God’s kingdom and by the righteousness of Jesus Christ is a wealth of sorrow.
2. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17).
Satan has no good gift to offer anybody; he hates humanity! He is a master deceiver who disguises his packages to lure in the foolhardy. He offers desperate souls fresh apples but he won’t show them the deadly worms and maggots within it. He offers people sweet wine but doesn’t tell them it’s laced with Cyanide.
Why do you think many who obtain riches from the kingdom of darkness suffer endlessly from serious afflictions, untimely deaths, accidents, barrenness, prolonged ailments and destructive habits that eventually wear them out and render their wealth absolutely meaningless?
Why do you think their successive generation usually suffer from chains of poverty, inexplicable failures and mental illnesses? I will tell you why, because they received a Greek gift – one seeming benefit plus hundred troubles. That’s why many fetish priests themselves steer clear of such rituals. They know better.
3. There is much dignity in decent labour. “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man” (Prov. 6:10-11).
It’s unfortunate that our value system has so much plunged that there’s a huge disconnect between the dignity of hard work, ethics and integrity and what the society has redefined as success.
As a result, many youths have cultivated magical ideas about money. They don’t desire to work for N1000 but wish to live the life of N500,000. They want to live large and cut corners to achieve it.
With the way wealth is being flaunted by Nigerian celebrities, politicians and even some “prosperity preachers,” it is not far fetched why Ponzi schemes, money-making rituals and Internet scams have continued to attract many youths. These desperadoes want to climb their trees from its leaves and circumvent reality. That’s an exercise in self-delusion!
4. We need to extricate ourselves from this nutured mentality that we can make humongous sums of money irrespective of the political and economic realities of our country.
Nigeria is currently passing through a phase of economic downturn and we need to get our acts together and fashion realistic and productive means of survival, rather than taking the devious route of making pacts with vicious spirits.
Many who resort to Internet scams and money making rituals have little or no labour skills to make it through life. Tragically, the noble culture of apprenticeship that builds a society has been virtually replaced by a culture of greed, narcissism, vanity ‘Logo Benz’ appropriating lifestyle.
Avarice is a form of idolatry. It is one of the shackles of Mammon that drags humanity away from the will and purposes of God.
5. “The trustworthy person will get a rich reward, but a person who wants quick riches will get into trouble” (Prov. 28:20).
If you have a “I-must-be-rich-at-all-cost” mindset, rest assured you will fall into many evil snares. We need to cultivate a balanced attitude towards opulence.
Those wealthy figures we admire in our TVs and magazines also had their small beginnings. They laboured from obscurity into limelight; they lived in self-denial, discipline and endured years of set back and disappointments before becoming a household name – that is, for those of them who toured a noble path.
Start with something small and watch it grow. Anybody that is too big for something small is too small for something big.
Let’s deal with this culture of greed and idolatry that is bringing the curse of Mammon on our nation and sending many people to a Christless grave after a lifetime of horrendous crimes.
The Kindled Flame Blog 