Police officers. Photo: TheCable
The Kwara State Police Command has arrested four men in connection with two separate incidents involving the alleged removal of human heads from exhumed graves and the possession of suspected human hands allegedly intended for money-making rituals.
The Commissioner of Police, Ojo Adekimi, disclosed the arrests on Tuesday while briefing journalists at the command headquarters in Ilorin, where he gave details of the investigations into the two cases.
In the first incident, two men, identified as Abu Jimoh and Ayo Jimoh, were arrested over the alleged exhumation of graves and removal of heads from buried bodies at a cemetery in Omupo, Kwara State.
The police said the incident came to light in May 2026 when members of the community visited the cemetery to bury a deceased person and discovered that some graves had been exhumed and the heads of the bodies buried there were missing.
The Commissioner said, “Following a painstaking, intelligence-led investigation, operatives arrested Abu Jimoh and Ayo Jimoh at about 5:00 a.m. on October 8, 2026, while they were allegedly digging graves within the cemetery.”
During interrogation, the two suspects reportedly confessed to the crime and identified a herbalist, Mukaila Bello, as the alleged buyer of the missing human heads.
The police listed Abu Jimoh, Ayo Jimoh and Bello as suspects in the case, although the information provided did not establish whether the alleged buyer had also been arrested.
The command added that “Investigations are ongoing, and the suspects will be arraigned in court upon the conclusion of the investigation.”
In a separate case, the police arrested two other men, Kamalden Lukmon and AbdulGaniyu Ibrahim, after recovering two suspected human hands during an operation along Bakase Road in Alapa, Kwara State.
The arrests were made at about 4pm on October 8, 2026, with the discovery of the suspected body parts prompting further investigations into their origin and the circumstances surrounding the suspects’ possession of them.
According to the police, preliminary interrogation indicated that the two suspects intended to use the body parts for money-making rituals.
The police said, “During preliminary interrogation, the suspects stated that they intended to use the body parts for money-making rituals.”
The suspects reportedly told investigators that a vigilante member, identified as Abdulraf Apata, had handed the suspected human hands over to them.
“The allegation against Apata is being investigated to establish the facts and determine whether other individuals were involved,” the police added.
The command disclosed that Lukmon and Ibrahim were being held at the Violent Crimes Response Unit as investigations continued.
It added that investigators were working to establish the identity of the possible victim and determine the circumstances surrounding the death connected to the investigation.