Operatives of the Ogun State Police command have arrested no fewer than seven men said to be members of a serial ritual killer syndicate in different parts of Abeokuta over the murder of one Sunday Okosun and three other unknown persons.
The police identified the suspects as; Samod Sulaiman, Ifayemi Madru and Lekan Oladipupo of Sotan village; Sulaiman Aremu of Imala Elega; Shittu Saheed of Alarugbo village, Akanji Moruf of Alabata village and Tajudeen Adekunle of Sapon, all in Abeokuta.
The state police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the arrest of the suspects came after a report was lodged at Bode Olude police division by one Abraham Okosun, a brother of the deceased Sunday Okosun.
The complainant had told the police that he visited his brother, Sunday at Agbara village via Mawuko Abeokuta, only to discover that the he had been “brutally murdered by unknown person(s), and his remains had been dismembered.”
As a result, the DPO of Bode Olude division, DSP Durojaye Rotimi, was said to have visited the scene with his crack detectives and embarked on an intelligence-based investigation to fish out the killers of Sunday Okosun.
“Acting on credible information, the detectives traced and apprehended Lekan Oladipupo, who on interrogation, confessed being the actual person who shot and killed the deceased with his Dane gun. His confession led to the arrest of the other six suspects,” Oyeyemi disclosed.
He explained that each of the arrested suspects confessed to the police, their roles in the gruesome murder of the deceased and others who have been killed in similar circumstances.
While Lekan Oladipupo claimed to be the one to search for and kill their victims in the bush around Mawuko, Sulaiman Aremu’s role was to butcher the corpse of the victim and remove vital parts to be distributed to their standby customers, DAILY POST reports.
Their customers were identified by Oyeyemi as Ifayemi Badru, who bought the heart, hands, and other parts; Shittu Saheed who bought the head, Akanji Moruf who bought the heart of another victim and Tajudeen Adekunle, who also bought the head of another victim.
The suspects, according to Oyeyemi, had confessed to killing about four persons, adding that their bodies parts were used for money-making rituals.
“They also informed the police that they have code names for each human part whenever they want to request for it from their butcher man. For example, they normally referred to human head as ball, the heart as a transformer, while the hands are code-named fans,” he said.
While stating that the gun and cutlass used for the killings have been recovered, Oyeyemi quoted the Ogun Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, as describing the incident as the height of man’s inhumanity to man.
The CP, he said, ordered that the suspects be transferred to the homicide section of the state CIID for discreet investigation with a view to charging them to court.