Crimes

Police arrest ritualist in Ogun, reject N1m bribe

The operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested a suspected member of a ritualist syndicate, who allegedly killed and dismembered one Oyindamola Adeyemi at the Ijebu-Ode area of the state on January 28, 2023.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed this via a statement issued on Sunday, April 30.

Oyeyemi said the suspected ritualist was arrested on Friday at the Ijade-Iloti area of Ijebu-Ode.

He noted that the suspect offered the policemen who arrested him N1 million bribe, which was rejected.

The police spokesperson added that other members of the gang had earlier been arrested.

He further stated that the suspect was apprehended following painstaking intelligence-based investigation embarked upon by detectives from Obalende Divisional Headquarters, which led them to his hideout.

“The suspect, who had been indicted by the earlier arrested members of the syndicate as the person who bought the two legs of the victim, took to flight immediately he heard that he had been mentioned by his colleagues.

“Since then, the DPO, Obalende Division, Murphy Salami, has detailed his detectives to be on his trail with a view to arresting him and possibly recovering the deceased’s two legs from him and prosecuting him with his colleagues-in-crime.

“Luck, however, ran against him when he was apprehended at his Ijade-Iloti hideout on April 28,” Oyeyemi said.

Oyeyemi added that the suspect had confessed being part of the syndicate that killed the victim and that he was the person who severed the two legs of the deceased, which he claimed he used for ritual purpose.

He said the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Oladimeji, has directed that the suspected ritualist be transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department in order to prosecute him with other members of his syndicate.

The Star