Ritual purpose

AKURE—THREE men, who kidnapped and killed three female students of Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo State, yesterday, confessed selling their body parts for N15 million to a merchant in ljebu Igbo, Ogun State.

Ritual killers in police net in Ondo
Meanwhile, only two decomposing corpses of two of the butchered students have so far been recovered by the Police from a forest.

Parading the suspects in Akure yesterday, the new Commissioner of Police, Gbenga Adeyanju, said the suspects—John Adenitire, alias Emir, the butcher; Fasayo Fasanu, alias Abore, and a herbalist, Alfa Abdulrafiu Tijani, who took custody of the body parts before selling them.

The leader of the gang, identified as Sile, who reportedly hunt for buyers and collect payment on behalf of the gang, had gone underground following the arrest of his gang members.

Also, 15 other suspected robbers and cult members were paraded by the Police Command.

The Police boss said the suspects chopped off the left hand and breast of each of the students, who were kidnapped after they left school on their way home.

The three students, according to him, flagged down commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as Okada, only to be kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination, where they were killed and butchered.

Initially, the girls were declared missing and after about a week a report was lodged at the Ondo Divisional Police Station and later transferred to the anti-robbery squad.

Acting on a tip-off, detectives arrested John Adenitire, the butcher, who led them to other members of the gang.

Police detectives were later led to the bush where the decomposing corpses of the three students were recovered.

Only the identities of two of the three victims were known—Blessing Oladepo and Mary Oluwasemilore.

In an interview, one of the suspects, John Adenitire, said the price attached to the sale of the human parts attracted them to the illicit business. According to him, the three hands and breasts were sold for N15 million.

He said the parts were handed over to Abdul Rafiu Tijani, the herbalist, who in turn took the package to Sile, now at large. He lamented that they were yet to collect their share of the money before they were rounded up by Police detectives.

Police Commissioner Adeyanju said it was total war on criminals and solicited the cooperation of the public by giving adequate information to the Police