| The suspects with some of the human parts |
By Chiemelie Ezeobi
To make ends meet, 40-year-old Agboola Kolawole, resorted to exhuming graves and selling the parts of the corpses to interested bidders. The shocker is that Kolawole chose the graves of none other than that of his deceased siblings and relatives.
According to police authorities, the suspects, Jamiu Adeleke, Ajibade Rafiu; the herbalist, Fatai Akiwowo, Kazeem Sanni and Agboola Kolawole; the main supplier, had at different times sold human parts in Owode area of Ogun State.
But while the business of exhuming corpses and selling the parts were booming, like Oliver Twist, they wanted more. Their quest for more led them in veering into ritual killing. THISDAY gathered that before their arrest, they were on a quest for a human being to kill and use the parts for rituals.
It was gathered during interrogation that the herbalist had hired some of the suspects and given them the contract to get a human being at the cost of N40, 000 which he would use for rituals for some of his customers.
Speaking to THISDAY, Kolawole admitted that the eight hands which he had sold so far belonged to his siblings; his two brothers and sisters and some of his relatives.
According to him, he confessed that he went to their graves and cut off their heads. He confessed that he sold the heads for N8,000 each while he sold the hands for N4,000 each and the private parts went for as high as N10,000.
Kolawole said he went into the business because he needed money to pay his children’s school fees. He said, “I am a farmer and I live in a graveyard in Owo, Ogun State. In December last year, I went to see my friend and begged him to loan me money to pay my children’s fees.
"He then said if I could help him to get human skulls, he would pay me N8,000 for each. He came to my house at night and after he had exhumed the corpses, he gave me N16,000.
"In May, 2013, I needed money to purchase examination form for my child and I went to meet him again. He said he would give me N16, 000 for two more skulls so he exhumed two more corpses.”
Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said the arrest of Jamiu Adeleke unraveled a chain of events that led to the arrest of all the suspects perpetuating the act.
She said, "Based on a tip off, the Officer-in-Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command, Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, on May 15, arrested one Jamiu Adeleke in Owode with a human hand he was trying to sell.
"He was planning to sell the human hand for N21, 000 and upon interrogation, he confessed that he bought the parts from one Sanni Kazeem at the cost of N6, 000.
“The police also arrested Sanni and he in turn confessed that he had supplied two human heads to another dealer; Fatai Akiwowo and he was subsequently picked up.
"When Akiwowo was picked up, he confessed to receiving the human heads as well as another four heads from the main supplier; Kolawole. That was the chain of events that led to the arrest of the major dealer Kolawole."
Braide added that upon interrogation, Kolawole confessed that the human parts that he had constituently supplied to his dealers were corpses of his siblings he had exhumed from the private graves in their family house.
She noted that the chain of distribution ended with one herbalist; Ajibade Rafiu aka Dudu, who used the parts either for rituals or turned it into concoctions for those seeking wealth and riches.
She said, “Investigations led to the home of a herbalist, Rafiu, who is also the receiver. He uses the bodies for rituals. In his house, police recovered fresh hands which he claims to use for his customers.
"We also saw a bottle which he said was crushed human skull mixed in fluid. He said it is for power and he uses it to make medicine for people. Again, we discovered that the suppliers get their human parts from various graveyards in Ogun State."
But the herbalist, Rafiu, said he never exhumed any corpse rather, it was the others suspects that were always pestering him to buy body parts, adding that the corpses used in preparing a potion which people drank for protection.
He said, “The bottle I am holding contains a burnt and crushed human skull and schnapps. Anybody who drinks it will be immune to all forms of attack. I have been doing this for about seven years now but I have never drunk the potion before, I am even scared to use it.
Although 25-year-old suspect, Sanni, admitted to have exhumed only two corpses, he said he quit when Akinowo told him to get a human being.
Another suspect, Akinowo, said poverty pushed him into the illegitimate business, adding that he was paid N8,000 for each body part.
Chiemelie Ezeobi
THISDAY Correspondent
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