Police Arrest Five Ritualists In Ondo

FIVE suspected ritualists have been arrested
at a shrine where abducted persons are slaughtered
and their parts sold to prospective buyers at Ago
Oyinbo in Okitipupa area of Ondo State.
Consequently, upon discovery of the kidnappers den,
youths in the town stormed the place and
demolished it.

Vanguard gathered that the suspects were arrested,
following a tip-off by people of the community, who
noticed strange movements and stench oozing out of
the building.
Igbotako Police division reportedly effected the arrest
of the suspects.

Before their arrest, the suspects were alleged to have
been occupying the building in the last three years.
Sources informed newsmen that the suspected
ritualists, after kidnapping their victims, usually take
them to the shrine and slaughtered them for ritual
purposes.

The said shrine is located in the village which is a few
kilometres away from Benin-Ore-Ijebu Ode
expressway.

Fetish materials such as cow horns, different types of
clothes suspected to belong to those abducted, palm
fronds, bottles of gin, calabashes, ‘Ghana must go’
bags, among others, were found at the shrine.
The Baale of Ago Oyinbo, Chief Moyebi Okeowo, who
spoke to newsmen, said the shrine must have been
erected in 2012 when the suspects came to beg for a
space in the village to use as location to shoot films.
He said: “I asked somebody to take them to the
owner of the land, unknown to him that they wanted
to use the village as a kidnappers den.

“When they came to me to beg for a piece of land to
shoot their film, I told them I am not the owner of the
land and I took them to the brother of the landlord of
the land who took them to the wife of the landlord in
Akure.

‘I learned they were authorized by the wife of the
landlord to use the land and since then, they have
been using it.

“When I did not know what they were using the land
for, I told their leader to go and report their activities
to the police and he later informed me that he had
done so.”

Okeowo explained that he was not aware of the
activities of the suspects until last Monday when he
got information that the suspects were using human
beings for sacrifice on the land.

Also, the Principal of Community Grammar School in
neighbouring Kajola, in Odigbo Local Government
Area of the state, Mr Joseph Edosama, said two of
the security guards of the school were among the
suspects arrested by the police for conspiring with
the suspected kidnappers.

Another community leader, who spoke in confidence,
explained that it had been long since the suspects
started operating in the village.

But the state police spokesman, Wole Ogodo, feigned
ignorance of the development in the community,
saying the state command had not been briefed by its
Divisional police station at Igbotako.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/police-arrest-five-ritualists-in-ondo/