Cleric Held with Body Parts of Corpse He Helped to Bury

Matilda Omonaiye/

An Islamic cleric, who conducted the burial ceremony for a dead man, has been caught with the deceased’s body parts four days after.

The Oyo State Police Command yesterday paraded the Islamic cleric (otherwise called Alfa), a pastor, and two others, who were allegedly caught with suspected human parts in the Ayegun area of Ibadan.

The state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, said the Alfa, Sulaiman Hamed, 35, participated in the Fidau prayers for the dead man but later contracted two men to exhume the corpse because he needed the body parts for money ritual.

According to the police boss, the confessional statements of the two accomplices, Olapade Saheed, 32, and Olatunji Abiodun, 26, after they were caught with the deceased’s head and other body parts, led to the arrest of Hamed and one Tope Akinyele, 45, who claimed to be the presiding pastor of Light of God C & S Church, Ojagbo, in the Oranyan area of Ibadan.

Hamed said he usually paid N2,500 for human flesh which he used in making money charm for his clients.

He told reporters: “Someone introduced Saheed and Abiodun to me. I gave them N2,500 to help me find human flesh. We all met at Ayegun junction, Ibadan. Around 10pm, I took them to a grave where a body that was brought from Warri, Delta State, was buried.

“I took part in the prayers for the deceased before he was buried. I left them (Saheed and Abiodun) there, but they refused to let me go. They said they wanted to sleep in my house that night. I got them a place close to my house.

“In the early hours of the second day, they came to me with a cellophane bag. I did not check what was inside, but I hanged it on the wall of my house. I was on my way to my office in Ile-Tuntun when I saw them in the midst of a crowd with a human head.