Nigerian gov’t to enforce new law to ban money rituals in Nollywood movies due to rise in ritual killings

The Federal Government of Nigeria has urged filmmakers to scrap money ritual content from their movies to clamp down on ritual killings in the country.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed confirmed the new move during a media visit in Abuja where he indicated that scenes featuring money rituals in Nollywood have negatively influenced the vulnerable youth.

According to the minister, some of the suspected ritual killers that have been arrested confessed that they learnt the ritual killings act on social media and this has called for a change by the Federal Government to sanitise social media.

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.

Not too long ago, the NFVCB also made the move to ban smoking in movies as they passed a non-smoking law in Nollywood movies.

The board’s director, Adedayo Thomas revealed that the move follows evidence of the entertainment industry’s influence on tobacco use and the impact on public health.