The Osun State Police Command has apprehended four individuals accused of conspiring to murder a 45-year-old woman for money ritual in Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to SP Yemisi Opalola, the command’s spokesperson, the arrest of the suspects followed a report filed by the woman’s son at the Apomu Police Division in Osun, stating that his mother, Usman Aminat, had gone missing after leaving home to visit Onifade Oyekanmi in Iyana Ajia, Ibadan.
Opalola stated, “Since his mother left home, her cell phones were switched off, her whereabouts unknown, and he strongly suspected that the said Oyekanmi, who is an herbalist, knew about his mother’s disappearance.”
Upon the arrest of Onifade Oyekanmi, who confessed to involvement in the woman’s disappearance, the case was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Osogbo for further investigation.
The subsequent confession of Oyekanmi led to the arrest of three additional suspects, all of whom admitted to their respective roles in the crime and confessed to conspiring to use the victim for money-making rituals.
During searches conducted at the suspects’ residences, law enforcement officers recovered three bottles containing a black substance suspected to be burnt human parts, two cutlasses, a large black clay pot, and black soaps.
Additionally, a female neighbor who assisted one of the suspects in concealing his share of the powder substance was arrested, though later granted administrative bail due to nursing a four-month-old baby.
The suspects disclosed that they strangled the victim to death in Oyekanmi’s house, dismembered her body, mixed her intestines with those of animals and herbs in a black clay pot, and burned everything to black powder, which they distributed among themselves.
Opalola affirmed that the suspects would face prosecution upon the conclusion of the investigation. She urged residents to promptly report any suspicious activities to the police.
