Welcome to the long, strange story of Nigerian politicians and rituals, where a manifesto is optional but a “spiritual consultant” is practically mandatory.
Every election cycle, Nigeria’s political class finds a new spiritual stop on the campaign trail. One season it’s a forest shrine at midnight. The next, it’s a prayer ground with a car park the size of a small country. The venue changes, but the anxiety stays the same.
A quick note before we dive in. This is a tour of court-adjacent facts, EFCC statements, newspaper columns and allegations, not a verdict on anyone. Where something is a claim, we’ll say so. Where it’s just funny, we’ll say that too. 
The Okija shrine: where the plot thickened
Let’s start with the granddaddy of them all. On August 4, 2004, police raided a forest shrine in Umuhu Okija, in Ihiala LGA of Anambra State, and found human remains, skulls and a register of visitors’ names. Thirty-one suspects were arrested in connection with 83 corpses, 63 of them headless, plus 20 skulls.
Nigerians did not take it calmly. Neither should you.
Here’s the part people forget. Finding bodies didn’t prove anyone was murdered there. The operators said relatives brought in people who died elsewhere, because anyone who died after breaking an oath was believed to have been punished by the deity. Bridget Obi, a former Anambra commissioner who inspected the site, rejected the idea that it represented traditional Igbo religion, saying the priests used the place to defraud and extort.
So less “ancient tradition,” more “spiritual 419.” Leggo!
The politics arrived when reports emerged that influential Nigerians had sworn loyalty oaths at the shrine. Chris Ngige, governor of Anambra from 2003 to 2006, became the best-known name tied to this saga of Nigerian politicians and rituals.
Oaths, godfathers and a ticking resignation letter
In an August 2025 Vanguard interview, Ngige said he was taken to the shrine at midnight, a few days before the 2003 governorship election, without knowing where they were going, and told to swear loyalty. He insisted he never took the oath himself. He arrived with a Bible and holy water, and someone else volunteered to swear on his behalf.
Pause on that. A volunteer. For an oath. Interesting! Who’d have thought the gods gave proxy benefits?
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Columnist Mahmud Jega wrote in THISDAY that Ngige was said to have been taken there by his godfather, Chris Uba. He was allegedly made to sign a post-dated resignation letter, to take effect whenever he displeased the godfather. His relationship with Chris Uba, who backed his emergence as PDP candidate, later soured, and Ngige was abducted in July 2003 and pressured to resign before regaining control of the situation.
Nothing says “public service” like handing in your exit letter before you’ve been sworn in.
The spiritual consultancy business is booming for Nigerian politicians and rituals
If shrines feel too dramatic, there’s the modern route: pay a spiritualist and hope for the best.
In July 2022, the EFCC arrested two self-acclaimed spiritualists in Ado-Ekiti who allegedly collected ₦24,071,000 from a House of Representatives aspirant for spiritual help with his ambition. One suspect said ₦2.9 million went on black, brown and white cows, rams, lavender perfume and rings for sacrifices. The plan hit a wall when the zoning for the seat moved from Oye-Ekiti to Ikole-Ekiti.
Which means somewhere, a lavender-scented cow is still lounging around, wondering what its purpose is.
Then there’s the saga that deserves its own sitcom. In late 2025, then Power Minister Bayo Adelabu petitioned the DSS, alleging that Primate Elijah Ayodele demanded 24 APC flags and 1,000 saxophones or trumpets, priced between ₦50 million and ₦130 million, as prerequisites for “divine favour” in his Oyo governorship bid. Adelabu said he refused because ambition shouldn’t rest on spiritual manipulation.
Ayodele, of course denied it, saying no money changed hands and that the minister approached him first, desperate for the governorship. Both men have their versions. The saxophones, sadly, while they got louder, have no comment.
Bats, tortoises and the chicken that kept its leg
The Nigerian politicians and rituals folklore is rich, and Jega’s THISDAY column is a tour guide. After his 2024 win, Edo Governor Monday Okpebholo told a thanksgiving audience that a bat died on his bed before INEC declared him winner, and he credited God’s intervention. Jega’s more earthly theories involved a hole in the roof or a household staffer. The governor denied consulting any babalawo.
The column also digs up older gems. At a 1983 UPN congress in Ibadan, police frisking delegates found a live tortoise strapped to one delegate’s waist. And in 1979, Sokoto candidate Shehu Kangiwa was told by a marabout to cut off a live chicken’s leg and refused.
That chicken has the best story in this whole article.
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Blood, babies and what we actually know about Nigerian politicians and rituals
This is where we separate allegation from fact, and where the jokes stop.
A 2017 Vanguard report said arrested suspects and herbalists had accused some politicians and officials of using human beings for rituals to stay in power, and that disappearances tend to spike when elections approach. BusinessDay later noted that reports have implicated various people, including politicians, while experts blame a toxic hunger for wealth and power.
Those are allegations, not convictions. Separate police cases do exist, like the 2025 arrest in Niger State of three people accused of trying to buy a six-month-old foetus for rituals. That case has no stated political link. We found no credible, on-the-record account tying a named Nigerian politician to a foetus sacrifice.
There are also stories of politicians being made to swear oaths in shrines and sleep in coffins to seal the deal; a symbol of surrendering themselves to death if they break their oath. While such stories are rampant and make for good gossip material, (unfortunately?) we found no verified evidence of such having happened. The one verified coffin story involves a pastor: Archbishop Samson Mustapha Benjamin was seen in Lagos carrying a coffin on his head to deliver a message to Nigeria’s leaders. That one is a rebuke, not a rite.
But just because we couldn’t find them doesn’t, of course, mean they don’t exist. Just saying.
Redemption Camp & Canaanland: the campaign-season pilgrimage
Now for the holy ground. Politicians flock to prayer camps every cycle, and lawfully so. Worship is not a crime. The timing, though, is hard not to bat an eye at.
In 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan attended the Holy Ghost Night at Redemption Camp days before the presidential election, said he wasn’t there to campaign, and knelt while Pastor Adeboye prayed for him. He’d also been prayed for at Winners Chapel two weeks earlier, and had worshipped at the church before the 2011 polls too.
A man simply feeling prayerful at the right time, many times over. Hallelujah!
Ahead of 2023, THISDAY reported that Bola Tinubu met Adeboye at Redemption Camp over the controversy around his Muslim-Muslim ticket. The RCCG responded that Adeboye had not and would not endorse any candidate. More recently, 2027 presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore said he met Adeboye privately at an RCCG service, insisting it wasn’t political strategy.
Adeboye has drawn his own line. In May 2026, he said politicians are free to attend services but may not use the altar for campaigns, and that the church is non-partisan. He added that the next president has already been decided by God. Good news for everyone who wasn’t planning to campaign.
Bishop David Oyedepo also says it plainly. He has said no political party in Nigeria failed to come to him for prayers and advice, and that he has never campaigned for anyone. In 2025, he said he wouldn’t go near politics even for $1 billion. Notice who’s doing the visiting. The clerics are staying put. The politicians are driving to them.
Nigerian politicians and rituals: So… does any of it work?
Here’s the awkward bit. Oaths didn’t stop the Ngige–godfather feud. Sacrifices didn’t save the Ekiti aspirant’s ticket. Saxophones, as far as anyone knows, haven’t produced a governor. Meanwhile, elections are still won on organisation, money, alliances and, occasionally, actual votes. Yes, that last one.
The spiritual hustle persists because the stakes are huge and the fear is real, and fear is excellent business for anyone selling certainty. From the Okija shrine to Redemption Camp, the pattern holds: the scarier the race, the longer the pilgrimage list.
If only the same energy went into governance, Nigerian politicians and rituals wouldn’t need a feature article. They’d need a footnote.
But hey! This is Nigeria!
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