Kushimo Lukman, a 55-year-old mortuary attendant who was nabbed with a human head severed from a child’s corpse in a cemetery, has said he was promised N15,000 for the job by native doctors who gave him the task.
Lukman, who was among suspects paraded by the Ogun State Police Command last Thursday was arrested on Tuesday, April 26 by men of the So Safe Corps at about 6:30am while they were on routine patrol at Lantoro area of Abeokuta.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who spoke on behalf of the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, during the press briefing, said that Lukman a.k.a Werepe, was seen coming out of Oke-Yidi cemetery with a sack.
Oyeyemi said Lukman was stopped, “and when searched, the head of a child was discovered in the sack he had. Preliminary investigation revealed that the child’s corpse was brought to the cemetery a day earlier for burial through the help of the suspect who later returned to sever the head.”
The two native doctors, known as Awurela and Fakorede, had sought Lukman’s help to get a human head for ritual meant for fraudsters popularly known as Yahoo boys.
Awurela was said to be the intermediary between Lukman and Fakorede, and had negotiated the payment to be made to Lukman after the delivery of the head.
He was arrested shortly before the Thursday press briefing.
Lukman, who was a staff of a local government mortuary, in an interview narrated how he got the head he severed.
He said, “I was asked by a couple to help bury their dead six-year-old child in a cemetery at Yidi, Lantoro area on Monday, April 25. Before then, two native doctors, Awurela and Fakorede, had asked me to help them get a human head they needed to perform ritual for Yahoo guys.
“After burying the child and his parents returned to Ibadan in Oyo State, I went back to the cemetery at about 6am the following day, exhumed the corpse, cut off its head and put it in sack, heading towards Awurela and Fakorede’s house. But I was arrested by vigilantes at OkeIlewo area of Abeokuta. I was transferred to the police.”
Lukmon said that before the last request by the native doctors, they had asked him to get some human flesh for them, but he decided to buy pork which he presented to them as that of human.
“I was paid N5,000. I went to buy pork for them. But when they performed the ritual for the Yahoo boys, they were told that it was not effective as the flesh used was not that of human.
“They also asked me to get body fluid from a corpse but I said I couldn’t get such. It was after this that I was asked to get the head. They said that they would give me N15,000 after bringing it to them.”