December 01, (THEWILL) – Police in Ogun state have arrested a 7-man gang of serial ritualists in connection with the killing and dismembering of the body of one Sunday at Agbara village in Mawuko area of Abeokuta.
The suspects were identified as Lekan Oladipupo, 38; Sulaiman Aremu, 30; Ifayemi Madru, 24; Shittu Saheed, 38, Samod Sulaiman, 35; Akanji Moruf, 23, and Tajudeen Adekunle, 36.
They were arrested following a report lodged at Bode Olude Divisional Headquarters by one Abraham Okosun, the brother to the deceased
Abraham told the police that he visited his brother (the victim) at Agbara village via Mawuko Abeokuta, only to discover that his brother had been brutally murdered by unknown persons and his remains dismembered.
The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi confirmed this to newsmen in a statement in Abeokuta on Wednesday.
Oyeyemi said that upon the report, the DPO of Bode Olude Division, DSP Durojaye Rotimi, visited the scene with his detectives and embarked on an intelligence investigation to find those behind the dastardly act.
He noted that the police acted on a credible information which led to the tracing and arrest of the prime suspect, Oladipupo, who confessed he shot and killed the deceased with his dane gun.
The Police PRO said the suspect’s confession led to the arrest of the six other suspects, who on interrogation narrated their respective roles in the gruesome murder of the deceased and others that had been killed in similar circumstances.
Narrating their roles, Oladipupo informed the police that his own part was to look for a victim in a bush around Mawuko area and shoot such person to death. He will then contact Aremu, who will butcher the corpse of the victim and remove vital parts to be distributed to their standby customers.
The customers are Badru who buys the heart, hands and other parts of the body; Akanji also buys the heart while Saheed and Adekunle buy the head.
Oyeyemi said the suspects confessed to have killed not less than four persons in similar circumstances and that their bodies parts were used for money making rituals.
He opined that the suspects have code names for each human part whenever they want to request for them from their butcher man.
“For example, they normally referred to human head as ball, the heart as transformer, while the hands is code named as fans,” the PPRO said.
The gun and cutlass they used for the dastardly act have been recovered.
Picture: The suspected ritualists
