Tag Archives: nigeria

Nigerian pastor faked kidnapping to extort parishoners

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Nigeria has a big problem: the country is cursed with a recent glut of kidnappings. For enterprising criminals, this has become a daily activity. Just last month, 50 people were kidnapped in a raid in the village of Bagega, a small mining town in the north of Nigeria.

There are so many kidnappings, in fact, that people now have to contend with fake ones instead. There’s a cottage industry of fakers who use the fear of death to extort people they know out of money. One such scammer is Pastor Adegoke Adewuyi, who decided that the best way to get rich was to kidnap himself, and trick his flock into paying for his “release”. His congregation was actually in the middle of getting the money together when the police busted down the door to Adewuyi hotel room, and arrested him, along with his accomplice.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned pastor Adewuyi’s conduct, saying it was ungodly and unbiblical. Chairman of the association, Rev. Joshua Orikogbe said such conducts bring Christendom into disrepute.

Meanwhile, a church member of pastor Adewuyi revealed that he was in the habit of engaging in fraudulent activities, including forging signatures to withdraw money from the church’s accounts.

Let’s recap: a known thief, elevated to a position of authority, abused his power and scammed his own flock. When that wasn’t paying the bills, he kicked it into high gear. This time, it blew up in his face.

Honestly, this sort of thing doesn’t surprise us nonbelievers. Taking people’s money by offering them a place in the afterlife is already a con. You are literally charging people to sell them piece of mind. Orders of weirdos in outfits have been making large claims and demanding people’s money for a long time. It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine someone taking this deceit to the next level. Who knows what kind of innovations pastors like Adewuyi have in store?

Did anyone learn a lesson in all of this? No. If you hoped that perhaps Ademuyi getting arrested might have taught him a lesson, then allow me to dispel such illusions. He’s blaming Satan for what happened. You see, it had to be the devil that possessed the poor man, since the only alternative would have been to take accountability for his actions.

I got 10 bucks that says he’ll eventually be forgiven, and goes right back to preaching once the heat has died down. I mean, his living appears to rely primarily on stealing money from his own church to enrich himself. Since Christians are always falling over themselves to forgive scumbags, all he has to do is say he’s repented, loves god, and they will give him the red carpet treatment.

Baby boy dies after botched circumcision

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Ok, here’s the deal, folks; before you read this article, I have to warn you that you’re not going to like reading some of the details of this story. I’ve written a lot about male genital mutilation (colloquially known as ‘circumcision’) in the past, but for some reason, this one story sent visuals in my head that I can’t shake off. So, you’ve officially been warned.

The story begins in Manchester, where a young and naïve couple from Nigeria -having recently given birth to a baby boy – hired a nurse by the name of Grace Adeleye for the sum of 100 pounds to circumcise their infant son. Adeleye arrived with her own ‘medical instruments’: an ordinary pair of scissors and a bottle of olive oil. After asking for a bowl of hot water (an antiseptic in her eyes), she cut the foreskin without any anesthetic or disinfectant, and the resulting wound eventually led to enough blood loss that the baby died shortly after.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event:

The court heard up to three children a month are admitted to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital because of bleeding after home-based circumcisions – a danger the nurse should have been aware of.

Adeleye denies her negligence, but it’s obvious this idiot knew less than nothing about medicine. This kind of tragedy happens all the time to countless other children living in countries where their death is just another statistic, all in the name of religious traditions that have no place in the modern world.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse in Africa

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I’ve written countless articles denouncing these Christian preachers in Nigeria for accusing innocent children of witchcraft; it’s one of the few times I’ve taken a subject so seriously. It isn’t only because of the images of these poor children -victims of a toxic mix of ancient superstition and organized religion – are seared into my brain. No, my passion comes mainly from the fact that this issue has been completely ignored by the mainstream media because of the obvious question it poses concerning Christianity’s influence in the Third World.

These videos are extremely hard to watch. The situation appears to be getting worse as Christianity’s influence grows. When that little girl starts crying when a person nearby admits to wanting to kill her, you’ll find it difficult to wake up happy tomorrow morning.

Religious Scams, Nigerian Style

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Yes, I realize that religion and scam are synonymous, but these kinds of evangelical preachers are a special breed. Maybe it’s the way they relish luxury while the poor continue to dump their money into his giant garbage-bins. Either way, when this bullshit gets exported to Nigeria, it takes on a whole life of its own. Check out scumbag “Dr.” Sign Fireman and his little racket.

(Update: Sign Fireman was eventually arrested and charged with the murder and rape of a young girl)

New Archbishop of Nigeria causes controversy

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There’s always an uneasy truce in Africa when it comes to religion. The combination of desperation and ignorance is attractive to mainstream religions, who send missionaries and monies to convert Africans to their side. In doing so, they have begun to carve apart communities. Take Nigeria as a good example; the Archbishop recently accused Muslims of “mass-producing” children in an attempt to take over communities by sheer numbers. He claims money from the Arab world is being funneled down and used to build hospitals and schools that encourage people to convert.

“They come to Africans and say, ‘Christianity is asking you to marry only one wife. We will give you four!’ ” Archbishop Okoh described this as “evangelism by mass-production”.

He’s not saying this because he believes these tactics are wrong. How could he? The Catholic Church has employed the same M.O. for quite some time now. If anything, it sounds to me like he’s jealous rather than angry. Still, the effect of such a statement cannot be underestimated, especially in a country where religious tensions are on the rise.

This is why religion poisons everything; with the election of this obviously antagonistic Archbishop, the uneasy peace building process that has been going on between Muslims and Christians may well evaporate, and we can all imagine what that would be like. This is the same country where they torture and kill children who are suspected of being witches. Do I really need to spell out what will happen here if this kind of shit keeps happening?

Belief is not innocuous

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A few months ago I wrote about the plight of Nigerian children who are accused of being witches. These kids are often beaten, abandoned, or killed because their parents or members of the community accuse them of being possessed by Satan. The problem is only getting worse, with an estimated 15,000 kids in Nigeria alone accused of being witches.

Even though there are a number of organizations working to undo the damage caused by such accusations, in truth this will continue to be an issue so long as the population remains ignorant. They believe witches are real, and no one so far has done enough to dissuade the population of this superstition. Why would they? Most of the organizations over there are missionaries, and a Christian priest trying to tell someone their beliefs are incorrect would only be faced with uncomfortable questions regarding his own superstitions. It’s the blind leading the blind.

The problem is also exacerbated by the fact no one seems willing to put their foot down and work on a campaign to abolish the belief in witchcraft:

“It is not the belief in witchcraft that we are concerned about,” Foxcroft said. “We acknowledge people’s right to hold this belief on the condition that this does not lead to child abuse.”

How can you ignore the elephant in the room here? Obviously it’s the belief that’s the problem. The intellectual lazy position that “everyone is entitled to their own beliefs” is not helping anyone here. No one lives in a bubble where their own personal beliefs won’t interact with reality. That’s obvious from the fact that thousands of kids will face persecution for the rest of their lives simply because their family believes in the childish notion of witchcraft.

If you want this kind of thing to stop, we’ll need to be serious about teaching the native population of Nigeria that their superstitions are in fact false. It may be unpopular, but if you can think of a better way to stop human beings from harming and killing one another, I’d love to hear it.

Children in Nigeria victims of superstition

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In a small village in Nigeria, a little boy of 5 years of age is frightened and confused. His mother and father have abandoned him; their normally loving embrace will never be felt again. The other villagers are angry, and some of them throw stones at him. He does not cry. Part of him has accepted his fate, and the rejection of his loved ones is enough to make the boy numb. The only question in his mind is how all of this is happening, and whether or not it’s simply just a bad dream.

If you’ve ever thought human superstitions were quaint and amusing, this is due to the fact in your society, science has unmasked superstitions and shown how foolish and silly they are. No one takes the idea of throwing salt over their shoulder for good luck seriously, any more than we avoid black cats. But in places like Nigeria, superstition is a powerful force which dominates their lives. It is made worse by the fact that the fear they trigger is being used by powerful evangelical ministers to gain power and wealth. The victims are little children who are often tortured, abandoned, and sometimes killed.

Their tactic is simple: by accusing children of witchcraft, a minister offers his expensive services to exorcise them. Often, however, when the parents can ill afford the treatment, their fear turns them from caring parents into brutal murderers. Some of these preachers have become extraordinary wealthy doing this. All of them have the blood of innocents on their hands.

It’s difficult enough to watch as whole villages turn on innocent children without seeing the long term affects. Many of the children, even when they do find a home, look despondent and scared. Their childhood has been savagely ripped away, leaving sorrow, despair, and unhappiness.

A little while ago, we did a podcast on the subject, but a fan of the site thought it necessary to remind me that this was still going on. I felt it should be mentioned again, if only to encourage those generous few to donate to an organization called Stepping Stones Nigeria which takes in these abandoned children who would otherwise be turned into slaves, or simply raped and killed. I don’t normally ask this of anyone, but it’s far too shocking to do nothing.

I’ve heard it said atheists are less generous than their religious counterparts. I think this untrue. I encourage you to help out this worthy organization, and if you have Christian friends, make them understand that their Savior is being used to justify torture and death. If they feel even half the outrage I do, hopefully it will match their generosity.