The Osun State Police Command has arrested seven individuals suspected of engaging in ritual activities involving human body parts. The arrest was made following a tip-off from a concerned citizen, according to the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Giwa-Alade Emmanuel, who paraded the suspects at the Command headquarters in Osogbo on Wednesday.
Emmanuel disclosed that items recovered from the suspects at the time of arrest included suspected human bone fragments, female undergarments, and notebooks containing ritual instructions.
The suspects were identified as Johnson Daniel, Adetunji Okunade, Olaniyan Azeez, Balogun Temitope Asimiyu, Oladapo Hammed, Kazeem Rasak, and Asaka Rauf. According to Emmanuel, “The above-named suspects were arrested upon credible information from a good-spirited individual that one Johnson Daniel, a mortuary attendant at Ipetu-Ijesa, sells portions of human remains deposited at the mortuary to native doctors.”
Further investigations revealed that Daniel, in collaboration with his accomplice Adetunji Okunade, was involved in selling both human remains and water used to bathe corpses to local ritualists. “The said suspects use these remains gotten from the mortuary attendant (Johnson Daniel) for different ritual purposes,” Emmanuel stated.
He also confirmed that during the search of the suspects’ homes, human bone fragments were found at the residences of Asaka Rauf and Oladapo Hammed, while a female undergarment and a notebook containing ritual instructions were recovered from the home of Balogun Temitope Asimiyu.
Emmanuel added, “Daniel also confessed that he conspired with one other mortuary attendant, Adetunji Okunade, to sell remnants of water used in bathing corpses to interested native doctors.”
All seven suspects have been charged, and the police continue to investigate the case.
In a related incident, the police also paraded five suspects—Taiwo Adekunle, Adebayo Opeyemi, Hasan Ibrahim, Oba Wasiu, and Olajide Oladapo—accused of armed robbery. Items recovered from them include a Ford SUV, a Hunter motorcycle, an empty shell cartridge, an iPhone, and a magnet.
The Osun State Police Command has assured the public that investigations into both cases are ongoing.
