The Police Command in Oyo State said it has commenced investigation into the killing of a 14-year-old, Malik Kareem, for alleged money ritual in Ibadan.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Adewale Osifeso, stated this during an interview on Monday in Ibadan.

Mr Osifeso said that the command was aware of the incident and had immediately commenced investigation with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice.

He assured members of the public that an update on the investigation on the matter would be made available once it was concluded.

It was gathered that the teenager was killed and beheaded allegedly for ritual purposes by his friends at Olorisaoko community in the Akinyele Local Government Area of the state on Saturday.

A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the deceased, alongside three of his friends, contacted a cleric, now at large, for a money ritual on the day of the incident.

The source said that unknown to the deceased, the three other boys had bargained with the cleric to kill him for the money ritual.

“When they got there, the deceased was strangulated, beheaded and cremated. We rushed to the scene of the incident when we heard about it. When we got there, the cleric had already run away, but we found the victim’s lifeless body on the ground, without a head and in the pool of his own blood,” the source said.

It was further gathered that the cleric’s house had since been set ablaze by some youths in the community.

(NAN)