BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
A 28-year-old herbalist, Ismail Adewuyi, and two clerics have been dragged before a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ede, Osun State for allegedly breaking into a cemetery and harvesting human corpses.
Adewuyi was, on Friday, arraigned with two others identified as Pastor Femi and Alfa Kabiru, whom he confessed have been buying human heads and other parts from him.
Men of the Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security Service in Ede, had on September 17, 2022, arrested Adewuyi, for allegedly stealing a female corpse’s head and intestines of another corpse suspected to be a male, at the Muslim Cemetery, Oke Yidi, in the Ede area of the state.
It was gathered that Adewuyi, who was armed with assorted charms, stormed the cemetery in the early hours of that day, exhumed the corpses, cut the head and brought out the intestines of another.
He was said to be making his way out of the cemetery when luck ran out of him as a member of hunters service, who had suspected Adewuyi’s movement, laid an ambush and apprehended him.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola, had said, “on Saturday, (September 17) around 1.25am, a member of Nigeria Hunter in Ede, arrested one Adewuyi Ismail, 28, of Oke-Ola, Agbagudu, Ede, and brought him to the station with an unknown fresh female head and intestines.
“The suspect was arrested around 1am at the Muslim Cemetery, Oke Yidi, Abere Road, Ede,” she added.
It was gathered that during police investigation, two other suspects, Femi and Kabiru, were arrested after Adewuyi named them as buyers of the human parts from him.
The trio were arraigned on Friday and accused of conspiring with others now at large to disturb the public peace by unlawfully tampering with dead body.
Police prosecutor, Sunday Adepoju, alleged in the charge sheet that the trio conspired to commit misdemeanour, tampering with corpses by cutting the head of one and removing the intestines of another.
He added that the two count-charge which contravened section 242 of the Criminal Code Cap. 34 Volume II Laws of Osun State of Nigeria 2002, was committed on September 17, 2022 at Muslim Cemetery, Oke Yidi, in the Ede area of Osun State.
But the court didn’t read the charge to the suspects as the Magistrate Court doesn’t have jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Magistrate B. O. Adeboye said the prosecution has fourteen days to furnish the court with an application for the remand of the suspects in Correctional Centre.
Adeboye, therefore, ordered that the trio be remanded in Ede Police custody.
