The Association of African Traditional Religion, Nigeria and Overseas (AATREN), on Thursday said that contrary to public perceptions, its members don’t indulge in ritual killings.
Mr Ifasegun Elegushi, the President of the association, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the public should, therefore, not always attribute ritual killings to his members.
"We are not responsible for ritual killings, we are traditionalists ,’’ he said.
Elegushi said that those who indulged in ritual killings were ungodly people but traditionalists were people who believed in propagating the African Traditional Religion (ATR).
Also, Mr Lekan Ajirotutu, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of AATREN, condemned the assertion that its members used to engage in ritual killings.
"Herbalists could be anybody, irrespective of religious belief,’’ he said
Ajirotutu said that the Nigerian Constitution allows every Nigerian to hold different religious beliefs and practices same.
According to him, the Nigerian Constitution recognizes: Islam, Christianity and the ATR.
"The ATR is the way of life of our predecessors, before the advent of the two other religions. Therefore, no religion should be condemned at the expense of the other. Everybody should be allowed to practise his or her own religious beliefs in a free atmosphere’’, Ajirotutu said.
Similarly, Mrs Folusho Adeogun-Oga, the Vice-President of the Association urged believers of the three religions to continue practising their faiths for the development of all ,instead of condemning one another.
"We are comfortable with our traditional religion, we call on our creator and he has been answering us, so why the condemnation’’, Adeogun-Oga said.
The Secretary-General of the Association, Mr Awodiran Agboola, urged the three tiers of government to intervene in stopping what he called the campaign of calumny against the traditional religion.
Agboola said that it was disheartening that people were no longer free to practise their religion without being condemned using the media.
"Despite the condemnation of the ATR, people still embrace and practise it on daily basis,’’ Agboola said.
