Ritualists suspected to be on high drive for dry human parts harvesting have stormed Ipokia community in Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State, excavating graves and rooting out human skulls for money ritual purposes.
The Daily Crucible learnt that the suspected ritualists who carried the heinous crime under the cover of night when men were asleep, exhumed no fewer than 40 human skulls from different graves in Ipokia in the last two months.
It was learnt that the activities of the ritualists began about two months ago and peaked as the year 2022 drew to a close with theft of dry skulls and other parts of the town’s departed loved ones.
Curiously enough, Ipokia, the headquarters of Ipokia Local Government, one of the border towns in Ogun State and home to a police divisional headquarters, an office of the Department of State Services (DSS), an office of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the So-Safe Corps, the Amotekun Corps as well as many check points of Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) and Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the perpetrators have not been identified and arrested despite the plethora of security agencies in the area.
The Daily Crucible gathered that the security agencies have devised any means to track down those behind the removal of skulls from graves in the town.
“They sneak into people’s compounds, dig the grave and remove the skull and any other parts they need. They will do it in a manner residents won’t wake up to know there is anything going on around them. You will just wake up in the morning to see that the grave in your compound has been dug and the skull removed. But nobody has been arrested since two months ago when this aberration started,” a source said.
Also, an elder in Ipokia, Prince Samuel Adeyemi, said two corpses were dug out in his compound on Friday, lamenting that nobody is doing anything to stop the act.
Adeyemi said the ‘skull harvesters’ are becoming more desperate and emboldened in their bid to steal as many skulls from the tombs in Ipokia, for reasons known only to the perpetrators.
The nonagenarian said he had reported the incident to the police, urging the authorities concerned to act fast and bring the perpetrators to book.
“Dead bodies are no longer safe in Ipokia because some people want to become billionaires overnight. Please help us,” he lamented.
Contacted, the Ogun State police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, denied knowledge of such occurrence, saying he was yet to be briefed about the incident.
He, however, promised to contact the Ipokia Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for information on the matter.