It was gathered that the victim and his partners in crime allegedly
came to Tonto compound in the early hours of Wednesday with a plot to
exhume the corpse of an aged woman and sever her decomposed head,
allegedly for ritual purposes. Continue...
A
credible source in the community, who did not want to be named, told
Saturday Tribune that “this particular corpse was buried five years ago
and the suspected ritualist attended the burial in Ilobu.”
He
explained: “There are indications that he did not dig the grave alone.
What we discovered is that he may have been attempting to cut off the
head of the corpse when something suddenly hooked him as he managed to
force half of his body into the grave to cut off the head.
“He
got hooked and died on the spot, a development which possibly compelled
other ritualists to run away from the scene so that they may not be
affected by the mysterious thing that killed (their colleague).”
While
commenting on how the residents of Ilobu got to know about the
incident, since it happened in the wee hours, the source said a woman
who was hawking ogi (a local corn meal) early in the morning of
Wednesday spotted the torso of the suspect sticking out of the grave and
raised the alarm.
“His
corpse was discovered around 6.30am and his head was covered in mud.
The residents here alerted the police division in Ilobu and they later
came to evacuate the body and put it in their van before taking him
away,” he said.
Saturday
Tribune was informed that the remains of the suspected ritualist were
subsequently taken to and deposited at the mortuary of the Ladoke
Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Osogbo, the state
capital.
When
contacted, the Commissioner of Police in Osun State, Mr Ibrahim
Maishanu, said he was aware of the incident, and that the police would
conduct investigation to determine what led to the suspect’s death.
He
said the police could not confirm that the suspect was a ritualist
because of the circumstances surrounding the discovery of his corpse at a
grave in Ilobu; that they would have to investigate the matter before
giving any concrete information on the incident.
Source: Nigerian Tribune
