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There was commotion in Olomi area of Ibadan on Sunday when a vigilante group apprehended a suspect who was said to have exhumed and beheaded the corpse of a man who died three months ago.
Residents said that at about 2AM on Sunday, night guards alerted them to a man who was seen sneaking out of a burial ground. He was caught with the head of a corpse he reportedly exhumed from in the area.
Newspeakonline learnt that residents detained the man identified as Taheed Musiliu till dawn and insisted that the media must hear from the suspect before the police took him away.
Some of the residents said the suspect, during interrogation by vigilante, begged not to be photographed
Petals FM which reported the incident Sunday morning interviewed some residents.
A resident said: “The man said he was an alfa (Islamic cleric). He said he was asked to bring the head and the hands of the corpse. He begged not to be photographed because if his photo went round, the man who sent him will escape. He said that the man who sent him lived behind Ibadan Grammar School, Molete, Ibadan. People knew that the police would not handle it properly so they wanted the media to hear it before it ends up with the police. That was why the residents called on Oriyomi Hamzat of Petals FM and other media houses”.
It was learnt that fracas however broke out when the police arrived to take the suspect to the police station. The people resisted the first set of policemen that came. A resident said that “immediately the suspect saw the cops, he smiled. And one of the policeman said to him: You again. So, you have come here too”.
The resident claimed that that was why the people in the area prevented the police from taking the suspect away.
It was however gathered that the police, after two more trials, went for re-enforcement and forcefully took the suspect away, using teargas and shooting into the air to disperse the crowd. One person was shot dead in the process.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the Oyo State Police Command, Adekunle Ajisebutu, who confirmed the incident, said the suspect was eventually taken to police custody, adding that one person died as a result of a stray bullet and that 27 persons were arrested.
The police spokesman said the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the command had begun investigation into the incident. He explained that the mob were angered because they claimed that the mobile telephone of the suspects had among its contact persons, names of Divisional Police Officers of the command.
His words: “A suspect was arrested with human head of a dead person. The police were called. In the process of taking the suspect to the police station, some hoodlums armed with dangerous weapons attacked the policemen, injured two and destroyed their patrol vehicles and attempted to set them ablaze for not allowing them to carry out extra judicial killing of the suspect.
“The armed hoodlums barricaded the street gates against the policemen. The injured policemen were rushed to the hospital for medical attention. Twenty-seven of the hoodlums were arrested and the suspect found with human head was eventually rescued. The case is currently under investigation by the state CIID.”
He added: “On the reports that the suspect has telephone contacts of four DPOs, it is possible and there is no crime in having them. Every member of the public should know that DPOs are public officers and their telephone numbers are always given to members of the public.
“I am the PPRO for the command and many members of the public have my number. If any of the people that have my contact is arrested for a crime and you find my number on his phone, would you say I am a culprit? The police have the right to ensure that jungle justice is not passed on anybody”.