Three young men have been taken into custody for allegedly killing a lady for ritual purposes in Ogun State, the police said on Saturday.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the arrest of the suspects in a statement in Abeokuta.
He explained that the suspects between the ages of 17 and 20 years, were apprehended very early on January 29 following a complaint at the Police Divisional Headquarters in the Adatan area of the state capital.
The head of the community security guard had reported that the suspects were seen burning a substance suspected to be the head of a human in a local pot.
“Upon the information, the Divisional Police Officer, Adatan Division, Superintendent of Police Abiodun Salau, quickly led his detectives to the scene, where the three suspects were arrested, while the fourth one who happened to be the boyfriend of the murdered girl escaped,” Oyeyemi said.
He added that on interrogation, the arrested suspects confessed that what they were burning in the local pot was the head of the girlfriend of their escaped accomplice.
“They confessed further that the girl who was simply identified as Rofiat was lured by her boyfriend simply identified as Soliu to where she was murdered by four of them, after which they cut off her head and packed the remains in a sack and dumped it in an old building.
“They subsequently led policemen to the building where the dismembered body was recovered and deposited at a general hospital mortuary for autopsy,” the command’s spokesman stated.
Some of the items recovered from the suspects include a short cutlass and a knife used in cutting off the lady’s head.
In his reaction, the Commissioner of Police in Ogun, Lanre Bankole, described the action of the suspects as the height of callousness and ordered a massive manhunt for their fleeing accomplice.
He also ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for investigation.
Bankole said the suspects should be arraigned in court as soon as possible, to answer for the crimes they were accused of.
