A couple and six others have been arrested by men of the Ogun State police command for allegedly killing and dismembering a 26-year-old mother of two, Oyindamola Adeyemi.

The command’s spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi said this in a statement issued in Abeokuta on Thursday.

Mr Oyeyemi said that the suspects were arrested on Wednesday, following a report lodged at Obalende divisional headquarters in Ijebu-Ode by Ojo Omolara.

According to Ms Ojo, Ms Adeyemi, her neighbour, left home in the morning of December 28 and did not return home, while her phone was switched off.

Mr Oyeyemi said that the police advised the complainant to come back since it was not yet up to 24 hours.

The next day, a patrol team from Obalende division saw a dismembered body of a lady by the road side, which was subsequently taken to a mortuary.

“Fortunately, the mortuary is a stone throw from the house of the deceased and one of the mortuary workers, who knew about the missing person, called the attention of the deceased’s family to come and have a look at the body brought by the police.

“On getting there, the deceased’s friend, Ojo Omolara was able to identify it through the underwear she put on since her head had already been chopped off.

“Having recognised the body, the DPO, Obalende division, SP Murphy Salami, mobilised his crack detectives and embarked on a technical and intelligence-based investigation, which led them to a herbalist in whose possession the deceased’s Itel phone was recovered.

“He was promptly arrested and a search warrant duly executed in his house, where a container full of human blood, later discovered to be that of the deceased, was recovered.

“His arrest led to the apprehension of another suspect, whose house the legs of the deceased were also recovered.

“They both made confessional statements, which led to the arrest of other suspects who are buyers of different parts of the deceased’s body,” he said.

The police spokesman said that during the interrogation, the suspects confessed that the deceased was lured to the house of the herbalist who happened to be her lover.

Quoting the suspects, he said that as soon as the victim entered, she was pinned down by two of the suspects before she was subsequently strangled.

“After killing her, they (suspects) cut off her head, legs and the two hands which they sold to their standby buyers, to be used for money making rituals,” he further stated.

Mr Oyeyemi quoted the suspects as saying that the victim’s legs and heart were sold for N30,000 and N50,000 respectively to the buyer, who, he said, was still at large.

He said that the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had ordered immediate transfer of the suspects to the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigations Departments (SCID) for discreet investigation and diligent prosecution.

(NAN)