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OYO,Nigeria (NAN) - The police command in Oyo State has apprehended two individuals for allegedly exhuming corpses and selling their body parts to ritualists.
In a statement to reporters on Friday in Ibadan, the command's Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso, revealed that the arrests followed a tip-off received by detectives at the Iyaganku Divisional Police Headquarters.
Osifeso explained that immediately acting on the information, detectives were dispatched to search one of the suspect's homes situated in the Muslim area of Ibadan.
During the search, investigators uncovered a female human torso and other dismembered remains, including severed limbs and dried bones, stored in bags and paint buckets. The suspect confessed to exhuming the body from a cemetery in Awa-Ijebu, Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State, and admitted to selling the body parts to ritualists.
The suspect subsequently guided detectives to the cemetery, where his claims were confirmed, leading to the arrest of the second suspect, a septuagenarian, who had purchased some body parts from him.
He also acknowledged his participation in the unlawful trade of human body parts. This case has now been transferred to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department for a thorough investigation, with efforts being intensified to identify and apprehend all involved parties.
Additionally, the state Commissioner of Police, Johnson Ademola, has urged cemetery managers to remain vigilant in light of recent activities by ritualists exhuming corpses.
Ademola also cautioned transporters to carefully examine the contents of their passengers' bags and baggage to prevent inadvertently facilitating illegal activities.
