The Niger State Police Command has made a significant breakthrough by apprehending five suspects allegedly involved in the possession of a human skull for a money ritual along the Minna-Bida road in the state.
Initially, the incident involved two suspects, Isah Mohammed (26 years old) and Idris Mohammed (28 years old), both hailing from Sakpe village in Edati Local Government Area. They were apprehended with the human skull wrapped in a bag during a routine patrol by a sister security agency. Subsequently, they were handed over to the state Police Area Command in Bida for further investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the two initial suspects disclosed the names of three additional individuals who had assisted them in the gruesome act of exhuming a corpse and removing the head.
Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Wasiu Abiodun, stated that the apprehension took place when the suspects were intercepted in a Mitsubishi Lancer vehicle at the toll gate along Bida-Minna during a passenger search on September 11, 2023, in the afternoon.
Abiodun revealed, “During police interrogation, the suspects claimed that they obtained the human skull from their village and were aided by three other individuals to the grave where the skull was exhumed.”
The three additional suspects identified are Ibrahim Jiya (18 years old), Suleiman Usman (22 years old), and Abdullahi Usman (24 years old), all hailing from the same address.
According to the police spokesman, these three suspects also confessed that the skull was dug out from the burial ground in Sakpe village, belonging to Ndako Daniyan, who passed away three years ago in the same village.
In a startling revelation, Abiodun added, “Two of the suspects, Isah and Abdullahi, claimed to have met an individual named Alfa Suleiman from Kwara State in Bida three weeks ago. He instructed them to obtain a human skull for a money ritual and advised them to take it to someone in Minna, providing N30,000 for the purpose. The unknown recipient instructed them to call him when they reached Kpakungu, and he would meet them.”
The five suspects have now been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Minna for a comprehensive investigation and rigorous prosecution of the case.
