Osun Command's PPRO, Abiodun Ojelabi
A suspected ritualist, Saheed Babalola, has been arrested by the operatives of the Nigeria Police Force for allegedly desecrating a corpse in Feesu community, near Iwo, Osun State.
The deceased, an 18-year-old girl residing in the same house with Babalola, was said to have died an unnatural death on Sunday and was buried the same day within the premises where she had lived.
It was also learnt that Babalola joined other mourners to bury the deceased.
But in the early hours of Monday, Babalola and two others, whose identities could not be immediately ascertained, allegedly returned to the burial site, exhumed the corpse and severed its head and wrist.
Luck, however, ran out on Babalola when some residents in the neighbourhood, reacting to strange sounds coming from the burial site, swung into action and caught him in the act, while his accomplices fled the scene.
A resident of Feesu, who preferred anonymity to avoid being targeted, said during a telephone interview with our correspondent on Wednesday that people in the neighbourhood apprehended Babalola and handed him over to the police.
He said, “Three people came to perpetrate the act, but we were able to apprehend one of them, and he was handed over to the police.”
Confirming the incident during a telephone interview on Wednesday, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Osun Police Command, Abiodun Ojelabi, said Babalola was cooperating with operatives investigating the matter.
Ojelabi said the deceased and the suspect were neighbours at Olomo Compound, Feesu, Iwo.
“Police officers went to the scene, and the suspect, Saheed Babalola, was arrested. The incident occurred on October 12. The deceased was buried on the 11th. The report said that the neighbours heard a strange noise, and when they went out, they met Saheed where they buried the deceased.
“He was arrested by the police in Iwo Division, but he has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The State CID went further with the investigation and discovered where he kept the head and the hand of the victim.
“We were able to recover the head and the hand. Investigation is still ongoing. Both the suspect and the deceased lived at the same address in Olomo Compound, Feesu in Iwo,” the PPRO said.
PUNCH Online earlier reported that Kwara State Command of the Nigeria Police Force arrested four men in connection with two separate incidents involving the alleged removal of human heads from exhumed corpses and the possession of suspected human hands allegedly intended for money-making rituals.
The Commissioner of Police, Ojo Adekimi, disclosed the arrests while briefing journalists at the command headquarters in Ilorin, where he gave details of the investigations into the two cases.