MICHAEL AKINOLA
Operatives from the Osun State Police Command have arrested a native doctor and three other suspects for allegedly conspiring to kill a 45-year old woman and using her body parts for ritual purposes in Oyo State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports as was disclosed by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Yemisi Opalola, during the parade of the suspects at the State headquarters in Osogbo.
SP Opalola stated that the suspects were arrested following a report of a missing person by the woman’s son at the Apomu Police Division in Osun.
“On March 18, at 5:10pm, a complainant reported at Apomu Division that on March 13, at about 10:00am, his mother, Usman Aminat, 45, left home for lyana Ajia-lbadan, Oyo State, to pay a visit to Onifade Oyekanmi,” the PPRO said.
He stated that since his mother left home, her mobile phones were switched off and her whereabout was unknown and that he strongly suspected that the said Oyekanmi, who is an herbalist, knew about his mother’s disappearance.
The said Onifade was subsequently arrested and the case was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Osogbo, Osun, for further and discreet investigation.
Opalola said the suspect’s confession led to the arrest of three other suspects.
She said that all the arrested suspects confessed to the individual roles they played, revealing that they all conspired to use the victim for money making rituals.
Thereafter, search warrants were executed on the houses and premises of the suspects, where three bottles containing black substance suspected to be burnt human parts, two cutlasses, a big black clay pot and some black soaps were recovered.
Opalola said that a female, a neighbour to one of the suspects, who helped him conceal his own share of the powder substance, was also arrested. She said that the lady was later granted administrative bail because she is nursing a four-month old baby.
The Police spokesperson said the suspects narrated how they conspired and strangled the victim to death in Oyekanmi’s house and dismembered her body.
They confessed to have mixed the intestine of their victim with that of the dog, pig, goat and other herbs in a black clay pot and burnt everything to black powder, which they shared among themselves.
“Onifade equally added that he burnt the two mobile phones belonging to the deceased after killing her to evade being traced,” Opalola added.
Opalola said the suspects would be charged to Court for the alleged murder after the completion of investigations by the Police.