A 54year old grandmother Sukuratu Salami was yesterday May 5th paraded by the Lagos state police command alongside her accomplices, for her involvement in ritual killings and human parts sales.
In her confessional statement, Madam Sukuratu said she sold human heads for N20,000 to willing buyers and that greed made her go into the business.
"A herbalist approached me last year and demanded for human parts. When he told me how much they buy the parts, I was tempted. I approached one Tantoloun, who works in a grave yard. He sold a skull for N10,000 and I sold it in return for N20,000. Greed made me to continue until I was arrested. I buy pieces of bones for N2,000, liver and intestines for N1,000 each and resell for N5,000 or more depending on the buyer’s bargaining power. I am not a killer. I have never killed anyone. I only request for decomposed human parts. I needed the money to feed my 3 children aged 30, 27 and 23. Those who patronize me are herbalists and trado-medical practitioners. The parts are used to prepare concoction for sick children. So far, I have only sold 10 human skulls.” she said.
Paraded with her was a cemetery worker, Rasheed Tantoloun and two others who were arrested by men of the Lagos state Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, in Joju area of Sango Ota, in possession of human head, intestines, bones, kidney and other human parts.
Rasheed in his statement said whenever his boss told him to dig up old gaves to make way for new burials, he would exhume this bodies and then sell them with the help of one Ibrahim whom he hired
"Anytime old corpses are exhumed, we usually collect the parts and sell to ready buyers who are usually agbo sellers (herbs dealers). My salary is N5,000 a month but since I started doing the business, I made three times more than the amount. We also dug corpses buried without caskets" he said His accomplice, Ibrahim Waheed who says he is an Arabic teacher said he was paid N3,000 for exhuming dead bodies. In his statement, he said “we usually tamper with dead bodies buried without caskets and those whose relatives never showed up after burial. My job is to exhume and dismember the bodies and at the end of which I would be paid N3,000".
According to the state Police Commissioner, Umar Tanko, luck however ran out on them when men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS got wind of their illicit business and decided to pose as prospective buyers
"Detectives led by the SARS commander, Abba Kyari, posed as buyers and bought a human head from Salami at N120,000. After arresting the suspects, Salami’s house was searched during which a human head, liver, intestines and other parts were found. We picked interest in this case because of the disappearances of people. With their arrest, we hope that we’ll get to the root of these disappearances. We discovered that most of these bodies are fresh. It is criminal to deal in human parts. A few weeks back, Soka Forest was discovered in Ibadan. As you can see, this crime happens all over" he said.
Culled:Linda Ikeji
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