Police recover 20 human heads, arrest 7 suspects
In recent times, Ogun State seems to be under attacks by ritualists who were on the loose in some parts of the state. The recent discovery of their dens and subsequent arrest of the suspected operators and their accomplices reveal that both the dead and the living are not safe in the hands of the ritualists.
Many cemeteries in Ogun State have been reportedly visited by these wicked souls who do not only exhume the contents, but, also dismember the remains of the dead and sell them. Bizarre.
This development has forced many families in the state to avoid porous cemeteries for the secured ones. So far, more than 20 human heads including that of a-two-year-old boy as well as other parts of human bodies including tongues, intestines among others have been severed by the ritualists who have been on the prowl in the state.
Sequel to this development, palpable fear has gripped residents of the state over the incessant reports of kidnapping by ritualists. Many of them succeed while nemesis catch up with some of them.
On March 11,2014, a-38-year-old man, Adelani Ayomide was caught with a bag allegedly containing 18 human skulls. The suspected ritualist was arrested at 6:48am during a stop-and-search operation along Ado-Odo, Owode road by Policemen attached to a division in Ado-Odo in Ado-Odo-Ota local government area of the state.
According to the state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi , Policemen attached to Ado-Odo division, while on stop- and -search along Ado-Odo Owode road, sighted a pedestrian, Adelani Ayomide, 38, of Ilaro, Ogun State with a bag containing 18 human heads. “The suspect will be transferred to the State Department Of Investigation, Eleweran, Abeokuta, for investigation. The Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye has assured the general public of a thorough investigation and will make sure the suspect face the wrath of the law and assist in getting other suspects in connection with the crime,” he said .
On April 2, the Ogun State Police command discovered a ritualists’ den in Iyana-Egbado village in Ewekoro local government area of Ogun state. The Police subsequently arrested a suspected ritualist simply identified as Gbenga who would have been lynched if not for the prompt intervention of the Police that stopped the irate mob. Adejobi disclosed that some human parts including decomposing intestines were found with him before he was whisked away.
Other items found at the ritualists’ den include; knives, various non – functioning electronic parts, assorted soft drinks suggesting that the suspect and other ritualists were indeed living under the bridge.
The suspect reportedly confessed to have come from Ado- Ekiti in Ekiti state.
A week after, another five suspected ritualists including two women, were nabbed with some human heads and other human parts in Joju area of Ota Ado-Odo-Ota local government . Adejobi in a statement said the suspects were arrested in a joint operation between men of the state Police command and the Special Anti Robbery Squad Lagos Command. The suspects who included Kubura Salami, Tantolorun Abimbola, Kafaya Popoola, Wahid Ibrahim and Adamu Rafiu were reportedly caught following a tip- off from the people of the area .
According to the PPRO , the Divisional Police Officer in charge Otta Division of the command, CSP Gabreal Idibie, led a team of operatives to assist policemen from the Special Anti-robbery Squad, SARS, Lagos, who got the first hand information on Joju area where the five suspects were arrested and the exhibits recovered for further investigation and prosecution.
“The suspects arrested include; Kubura Salami, Tantolorun Abimbola, Kafaya Popoola, Wahid Ibrahim and Adamu Rafiu. The exhibits recovered from them were; one complete human head and pieces of human flesh in a container stained with liquid substance suspected to be human blood.”
More shocking was the story of a two-year-old boy who was beheaded in the presence of his mother after the same man raped his mother. The suspect, Mamodu Bashir Ibrahim, in his 30s, wrecked the havoc at Mowe area of the state. He reportedly killed the boy and then severed his head and sold it afterwards.
According to the PPRO, on Saturday 12th April at about 9: 30 pm , the suspect who had earlier raped the mother of the deceased, fled the scene immediately he killed the boy and cut off his head. “Police operatives deployed to the area placed him under surveillance with the help of the members of the community before he was arrested at Mowe where he was hiding. The suspect has confessed to the crime and he is assisting the police in their investigation.
In the same vein, no fewer than six pupils of a private school in Obantoko area, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital escaped from the vehicle in which they were kept by suspected kidnapers. It was gathered that, the suspected kidnapers, after a failed attempt the previous day, went back the following day to the same spot in the morning to kidnap the school children.
An eye witness told Crime Guard that the pupils were returning from their holiday lesson in the school when four men in a tinted glass SUV allegedly kidnapped the victims one after the other and tied their hands and legs and put them in the vehicle.
The source further explained that one of the victims whose hands were not properly tied removed the twine and untied his colleagues who later escaped and alerted the people in the area.
Narrating their ordeal, one of the lucky pupils Oreoluwa Adebayo explained that one of the kidnapers, dressed like a religious man, begged for water to pour into the radiator of their vehicle which he claimed was overheating. He said, “as we were making efforts to get them water, we were grabbed and bundled into their vehicle and they tied all of us. Mine was not tight due to the lack of enough twine, so, I was able to untie others and we ran away because they were not there.”
Meanwhile, one of the teachers in the school, Gabriel Adesoga, has assured that some suspected kidnapers had beckoned on a pupil, Adebayo, who screamed and alerted the school and the neighborhood.
In his reaction, the state commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye assure the general public that the police would not condone any act of criminality within the state.
Okoye said that the command was ready to harness all available resources to have robust intelligence- driven policing.
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