The Nigerian Police Force has reported that a significant number of cases involving missing young women and girls are linked to ritualistic practices in Nigeria, which are associated with the growing hookup culture prevalent in the nation.
Henzodaily reports that the slang ‘Hookup’ denotes ladies typically meeting with individuals at a social gathering, such as a party or bar, and subsequently participating in a sexual experience with them.
This often involves having sexual relations with someone with whom one is not well acquainted, occurring once after an initial meeting in a social context.
The hookup culture promotes and normalizes casual sexual interactions, such as one-night stands, without the necessity of emotional connections or long-term commitments.
It is worth noting that the concept of casual, non-romantic sexual relationships has existed since the 1920s.
While some social commentators view hooking up as a milestone for feminist progress, others express concern that it undermines the foundation of healthy, intimate relationships.
Additionally, the hookup culture often exhibits gender bias, with women facing different societal judgments compared to men. For instance, women who engage in multiple hookups or who are perceived to go too far during their initial encounters may be labelled with derogatory terms such as “hoe.”
Speaking, however, while appearing live as a special guest on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday to address the issue of ‘Hookup Culture: Impact on Youth Values and Relationships,’ the Public Relations Officer for the Ogun State Command, Omolola Odutola, noted that young women aged between 20 and 32 are particularly vulnerable to this troubling trend.
“This particular menace is very serious, and I would like a lot of young people to understand the danger in the hookup culture.
“Today, we have lots of reports of missing persons. By the time we start an investigation, not less than 10 young girls and ladies go missing daily.
“In-depth investigations also reveal that those cases are not by accidents. Most of them are connected to hookup channels and apps. They fall victim to strangers who causally invite them to unknown places, and eventually fall victim to being used for ritual purposes,” she said.
She added that most young persons, especially males, believe that ritual killings can make them get rich.
“Most cases of missing girls and ritual killings occurring in Ogun state of recent, I would like to say that it is not new. But as much as possible, the Ogun state commissioner of police has been able to tame these ugly incidents.
“It stems from the ugly perspective of young persons who believe that ritual killing could enrich them. We have some of these unscrupulous elements who deceive young people to get human skulls or human body parts, which they use for some kind of concoction to get them rich.
“That is why we are having advocacy and sensitization, to enlighten young persons to make them understand that engaging in ritual killings does not in any way make them rich,” the security personnel noted.
According to her, the police command is working closely with the Women Affairs Commission of the state to stem the menace in the tide.
“The Ogun State government, particularly the Women Affairs Commission, works in tandem with the police command by providing counselling sessions.
“Apart from that, whenever we have cases such as this, if per adventure, the girls escape the rituals, we also have a proper way of helping them go through the distress of mental health and anxiety they might have felt during the incident.
“The hookup culture is prevalent among young girls between the ages of 20 to about 32 years. The reason they get involved in this menace is because they feel they don’t get enough from their parents, and then the get-rich syndrome,” Odutola said.
Some Healthy Marriages in Nigeria Happen Through Hookups
In her remark, a Development expert, Dorothy Njemanze, who also joined the conversation from Abuja, asserted that many healthy marriages in Nigeria happened through hookups.
She, however, expressed concern that the predation system extends to children.
Njemanze urged the Nigerian Police to provide full security and encourage the reporting culture in order to deal with the crime.
She said: “A lot of the predatory trends that we see have existed in the society all along. But instead of tackling them headlong, we make excuses and try to guilt-trip people. If you stay in your house, harm can happen to you. You go out; harm can happen to you. A lot of healthy marriages in Nigeria happen through hookups. We are expected to meet people irrespective of how it happened, especially when we are adults.
“But my concern is that the predation system extends to children. A lot of children are being lured through the predation system. It is important for every state to have a mandatory reporting system so that when suspicious movements are seen, such activities can be reported. And then for law enforcement, when people report things to you, and you are lax and expect people to write petitions and ply certain routes before you can take action, then there is a problem.
“The proactiveness of law enforcement agencies is what we bank on.
“Bad people plan very well to gain the trust of those they want to harm to minimise the chances of their victims raising alarms for them to be caught.
“I heard the policewoman talking about people going to parties. And I also read about a lady killed by her pastor in the church. So it could be anybody.
“Whatever the dimension that bad people choose to operate, the law enforcement should be able to ready to swoop in and ensure that there is minimal to no damage is done, and then the mandatory reporting culture of the society is one thing that can help to minimise these things.
“As long as we can’t control what adults do among eachother, we can minimize such occurrences because the hookup culture affects both men and women, but more among the women. There is more pressure on men to have resources that can make them look like big men. But make sure as much as possible whenever you are going out, somebody knows where you are going.”