Nollywood film makers advised against the promotion of money rituals

Minister laments an increase in ritual killing in Nigeria

Don't highlight ritual killing in movies, filmmakers told

Minister says social media is pushing the youth into ritual killing

Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has admonished filmmakers to desist from promoting money ritual content in their movies.

He believes that such stories have an impact on viewers who sometimes replicate what they see in Nollywood movies.

Speaking during a media visit to the Daily Trust office in Abuja, Mr Mohammed lamented the increase in ritual killings among the youth in some states in Nigeria.

The country's National Film and Video Censors Board have also been admonished to regulate such contents.

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

The Minister cited a recent incident which evolved some teenagers killing their female friend for rituals based on a scene they came across on social media.

"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,” said Nigerian's Minister of Information and Culture.