REBECCA AJANI
TWO suspects who were arrested for being in possession of the skulls of the two policemen that were set ablaze in Ibadan, Oyo State, during the #EndSARS protests, confessed on Friday that they sold the skulls to a herbalist for N1,000.
The suspects – Adewale Abiodun, 17; and Aliu Mubarak, 24, revealed this to journalists when they were paraded at the Police Headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan.
The herbalist, identified as Oladipupo Ifakorede, was also arrested, along with the suspected hoodlums, by operatives of the Quick Intervention Unit of the Oyo State Police Command on November 15.
The suspects said they were paid the N1,000 in two tranches of N500 each, noting that while others at the scene of the gruesome killing and burning of the policemen took other parts of their burnt bodies, including the ashes, they preferred to take the burnt skulls.
“On Monday, October 22, Mubarak told me to follow him to Alabata in Ibadan, where his wife resides. When we got to Iwo Road, we saw that the road had been blocked and there was smoke. We moved closer and saw that human beings were being burnt and the people were still hitting the bodies sticks and were also taking the parts,” he narrated.
He further said that his friend, Mubarak, then told him that he also wanted to take some body parts, that he had someone he could sell them to.
The suspect said, “Mubarak then went to take the two skulls and we went to the herbalist’s house in our area. After negotiation, he gave us N500 and said he would pay the balance of N500 later, that he would take them to a cleric in Ilorin, Kwara State. He said that was the person that would use them for rituals.
“After leaving the herbalist’s house, Mubarak and I went to eat at a restaurant. We used the N500 we were paid. Then at about 7pm the same day, the herbalist gave me the balance of N500 when he saw me at a junction in the neighbourhood. Mubarak and I shared it. We got N250 each.”
The other suspect, Mubarak also confirmed Abiodun’s account of what happened.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Nwachukwu Enwonwu, said the suspects would be arraigned.
