Operatives of Lagos Stare Police Command has smashed a gang that kills to harvest body parts.
Led by a pastor’s son, 33-year-old Ademola Akinlosotu alias Agesin, members of the gang including a community chief, an Ifa priest, a priestess, trado-medicine practitioner, and a traditional ruler told reporters how they killed their victims in cold blood, dismembered the bodies, and delivered to clients in a business coordinated by a 52-year-old man, Alhaji Ahmed Wahab aka Alfa Bororo. The gang is largely made up of Egun people from the Badagry area of Lagos and Ogun State.
Members of the gang in police net were identified as 25-year-old Sunday Padonu aka Osetura; Oba Yusuf Lawal, Muibat Adeshina aka Iya Osun (63), an herbalist – Kamoli Aderibigbe, and 42-year-old Baale Dada Travi, the Community Chief at Akarakumo, in Badagry, who told reporters that he used to grind human parts into powder, lick the powder and wash it down with ogogoro (local gin) for his business to prosper.
According to Agesin, who claimed to have dismembered not less than 15 bodies, a fresh head is sold at N45,000 or N50,000, and a dry head is between N30,000 and N35, 000.
“I got N248,000 as my share in the last job that I executed,” Agesin, who hails from Ondo State, told reporters at the Lagos State police headquarters, Ikeja
“I don’t send them to kill, but I buy human parts,” the alleged human parts dealer, Alhaji Wahab, told reporters at the police parade in Ikeja, Lagos
The suspects had different reasons for engaging in the crime. Oba Yusuf Lawal said that he engaged the gang to kill his adopted son, who was giving him problems. He said that all he needed was the head, the heart, and the hands. Dada Travi said that he got involved in the ritual killings when he wanted to become the Baale of Akarakumo, a title he spent N2 million to get.
Agesin said, “I met Baale through Mama Osun. I have killed three people for them. I met Mama Osun when she was celebrating the Osun Festival, and she invited Baale, who brought his friend – Balogun to the festival. We all started talking. I told them what I do for a living, and they said that we could work together. They introduced me to Osetura, the Ifa Priest who offered his house for the killings. He used to make divinations to know if there would be any problem when we kill anyone brought to the house.”
The gang revealed that they had also supplied the body parts of a day-old baby when there was a request for it. The baby was that of a woman who came to deliver at the place of the trado-medicine practitioner, Kamoli Aderibigbe, who was identified as a member of the gang.
Agesin spoke about how he started and how he built his network. He said, “When I started, I do go to cemeteries to exhume corpse. People call me to place orders. The guy who introduced me to the business of exhuming bodies at cemeteries is dead. I was only exhuming bodies until Alfa (Wahab) asked me to start supplying fresh body parts.
The police also confirmed their findings that Agesin started by going to cemeteries to exhume corpses and sell the parts. Later, the dealer told him he didn’t want corpse exhumed from cemeteries any longer, that he didn’t need dry corpse again, he needed fresh corpses “killed today, dismembered today, and supplied today”. From there, Agesin re-strategized and started working with people to kill their victims and instantly sell the body parts.
Two of the victims were simply identified as Lukmon and Saheed. Agesin said that they were shot to death and butchered. Their heads and hands were severed, and their hearts ripped out.
When Wahab told him he wanted a fresh body, Agesin travelled to Oke-Iho and lured Lukmon to Lagos. He promised to get him a job. While on the way to Lagos, he called Wahab that he had seen one fresh body. He took the victim to Wahab’s office for assessment, and Wahab allegedly said that the man was okay. Agesin thereafter called Osetu, a who resides the n Ado-Odo area of Ogun State to look for where they could kill Lukmon. He took Lukmon to Ado-O, o where they shot and killed him. They promptly dismembered the body.
Agesin gave reporters details of how Lukmon was ensnared and killed: “There was a time I went to Oke-Iho in Oyo State to lure a guy who was looking for a job to Lagos. I promised to get him a job on a farm.
“I called Balogun, a member of our gang, to inform him that I had a business. I also called Alhaji (Waha, ) who had requested for the head, heart, and hands. I got to know the guy’s name as Lukmon when I asked him to register his name.
“On the day that he was killed, we sat down gisting. Osetura brought Kola (cola nut), split it into fo, r and threw the pieces on the floor away from where he was. I moved and picked one. Then, Lukmon moved to pick o, e too. That was when Osetura pulled his gun and shot him in the back.”
Agesin, who had up to secondary school education at the Abaranje area of Lagos, said that he had worked as a labourer after leaving school before he started selling human parts.
He said, “My dad is a pastor. My mum sells provisions at Ijedodo in Lagos. I came from a broken home. My parents separated when we were young over 20 years ago. We were five childre and , one died last year. I am the second to the last born.”
Agesin also told reporters how the gang killed a victim simply identified as Saheed. He said that he met the victim on social media.
He said, “When Osetura shot Saheed, the bullet hit his upper limb. It’s that red cartridge. He didn’t die immediately. He struggled for about 20 minutes. I sat on the guy. Osetura brought a knife. As we were trying to hold him down, Osetura’s finger slid into his mouth. He gave the finger a deep bite.
Pleading his innocence in some of the crimes, the herbalist, Kamoli Aderibigbe said, “When the Baale told me that he wanted to make money rituals, that Ade (Agesin) was ready to help him, I advised that he should not do it. I asked Iya Osun if she was aware of what Baale wanted to do. She said yes, but she couldn’t allow them to use her house because her husband would be home.”
The gang was smashed by CP Fayoade Adegoke’s Special Squad under CSP Kehinde Oni, who assigned a team led by DSP Toyin Omosebi.
The police have declared a manhunt for other members of the gang and their associates.
