• Sell hand for N6,000; head, N8,000; private part, N10,000
Police in Lagos yesterday paraded five suspects, who specialised in selling human parts.
According to the suspects, different parts attract different prices.
They disclosed that human hands go for N6,000 each, heads attract N8,000 each, while private parts are sold for N10,000 each.
The suspects, Jamiu Adeleke, Ajibade Rafiu, Fatai Akiwowo, Kazeem Sanni and Agboola Kolawole, were arrested on May 15 at Owode town, Ogun State after it was reported that one of the suspects, Sanni, was looking for human being to sell to 'ritualists'.
Following a tip-off, detectives from the Special Anti- Robbery Squad, SARS, Lagos, led by SP Abba Kyari, arrested Adeleke with a severed human hand at Owode town.
He was trying to sell the hand for N21,000 when he was apprehended by detectives. During interrogation, he reportedly confessed that Sanni sold the hand to him for N6,000.
Sanni was later arrested and he too reportedly confessed to the crime, explaining that he had supplied two human heads to a dealer who he identified as Akiwowo.
Akiwowo told interrogators he received the two human heads from a supplier.
He added that he also received four heads from another supplier identified as Kolawole. Like his cohorts, Kolawole was arrested in Owode town. He said he had so far cut off four heads, among his relatives buried in their compound at Owode.
Kolawole told journalists that he cut and sold the heads of his two late brothers and two sisters buried in their compound and sold each for N8,000.
He said: "There are many graves in our compound. Our compound is full of graves. We normally do not bury our dead ones in the cemetery. But it got to a time that I faced serious financial crisis and I needed to borrow money but no one was ready to borrow me a dime.
"That was how I met Kazeem Sanni and he suggested the business to me that I could just cut of the heads of some of my family members buried in the compound.
I agreed and we exhumed two of my brothers' bodies and we cut of their heads. I sold each for N8,000. "After a few weeks, he came again and because I needed money, we exhumed two of my sisters' bodies, cut of their heads and he gave me N16,000.
"I don't know what he does with it but he confessed to me that he knows some people who normally use human heads for rituals."
Investigations by police showed that Sanni usually sells the dry heads to a Babaalawo, (herbalist), identified as Ajibade Rafiu. The herbalist is popularly called Dudu in Owode town. SARS detectives arrested Rafiu and recovered a drink made of grinded human heads mixed with dry gin in a bottle.
According to Rafiu, he usually gives the drink to his customers to drink for protection against evil powers; noting that his customers are usually ignorant of its content.
He also confessed that human part dealers, who get the parts from various graveyards in Ogun State, sell human head for N8,00, human hand for N6,000 and private part for N10,000.
According to him, the middlemen in the illicit business double the prices and sell to herbalists who are the final receivers and end users. One of the suspects, Sanni also confessed that two popular 'Alhajis' in Owode town had bought a human head from him, adding that they had also requested for a human being for N40,000.
He said he was looking for the human being when he was caught.
National Mirror