A 50-year-old man, Lekan Akeem Adeyemo, has been arrested while exhuming the remains of his neighbour’s mother, Mrs Ayoka Oyelowo, popularly called Mama Eleja, at Unity Forum community in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
City & Crime gathered that Adeyemo was caught by men of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) at about 2am last Thursday while exhuming the remains of the late woman in their family compound.
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The husband of the deceased, Alhaji Yusuf Hammed, who spoke with City & Crime, said the suspect confessed to the vigilantes and residents of the area that he was responsible for four other missing corpses in the area in the last few months.
Speaking further, Hammed said when neighbours were alerted about the incident by the vigilantes, the suspect confessed that he normally sold the dried heads at N15,000 each to a woman called Iyalaje in Bode Market, Molete, Ibadan.
The Chairman of the landlords’ association in the area, Mr Emmanuel Adebayo, who reported the case at the Mokola Division, said investigation by the community revealed that the suspect specialised in exhuming corpses for ritual.
He said, “Mama Eleja was buried on February 25, this year. This man (suspect) was there. We never knew he was trying to study the way she was going to be buried. On Thursday, a vigilante group caught him while exhuming the remains of Mama Eleja. He confessed to us that he had done five such things in recent times.”
When contacted, the state’s police spokesman, Adewale Osifeso, said, “Investigation is ongoing on the matter and updates would be provided accordingly.”
