seven days after presiding over the funeral rites of his
bosom friend, an Islamic cleric in Ilorin, Kwara State, Folorunsho Babatunde,
has bolted from his home after allegedly committing a sacrilegious act.
On Wednesday, July 26, 2017, the deceased, Sulaiman
Abdulahi, had shortly after returning from a social outing with the cleric
described as his childhood friend, reportedly complained of stomach ache for
which he was rushed to an undisclosed hospital. He died barely 24 hours later
and was buried same day, in accordance with Islamic injunction.
Expectedly, Folorunsho, played a prominent role in the
burial rites. Besides performing the Muslim bath of his late friend, he also
led the Janaza (funeral) prayer before the corpse was lowered into the grave.
Seven days after, precisely on August 2, he returned to
the graveyard and exhumed the body, which he discreetly took to his residence
at Eleran quarters in Oloje area of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, and
dismembered it in a macabre display of barbarism. It, however, turned out that
he couldn’t cover his tracks well enough.
It was learnt that the stench from the decomposed body
attracted the attention of neighbours, who traced the source to the residence
of Folorusho, who is said to be a bachelor in his early 30s.
Sensing danger, he reportedly bolted through a rear door
before the arrival of irate members of the community who broke into his
apartment to behold the gory sight of Sulaiman’s dismembered body, an act he
was suspected to have committed for ritual purposes.
Having fled his home, enraged residents descended heavily
on the suspect’s father, before dragging him to the divisional police
headquarters in the area. They also allegedly demolished the suspect’s family
home.
Meanwhile, homicide detectives at the Criminal
Investigation Department of the Kwara State Police Command, are on the trail of
Folorunsho, but there seems to be no clue as to his whereabouts. Spokesman of
the command, DSP Ajayi Okasanmi, told Sunday Sun that investigation was
ongoing, just as he confirmed the recovery of some human parts from the
suspect’s home before it was demolished.
Investigations indicated that the shocking
find at Folorunsho’s home brought to the fore, the rising activities of veiled
men of the underworld engaged in rituals in the state. No fewer than three of
such discoveries are said to have been made in Ilorin alone, within the past
three weeks.
A few days before the latest incident, residents of
Kokorokan Street, Abata Suban area of Ita Kudimo, Ilorin West Council Area of
the state, had cause to pull down the abode of a suspected ritualist, Wasiu
Iseoluwa, also known as Baba Muri, allegedly caught red-handed in the act.
A source who does not want his name in print, gave an
insight into the incident. “Earlier in the day, a man who is a customer to
Wasiu’s wife went to the house to buy local gin. He knocked severally on the
door but didn’t get a response, but heard a sound as if someone was cutting
something with cutlass; out of curiosity, he forced the door open and saw the
suspect removing human parts from a dead baby. Before then, residents had seen
Baba Muri go into his house with a pregnant woman but no one saw the woman come
out of the house. It is suspected that he dismembered and removed the baby in her
womb,” the source alleged.
Caught in the act, according to reports, the suspect had
attempted to attack the intruder, the wife’s customer, with a machete. He raised the alarm, which attracted members
of a socio-cultural cum regional security outfit, Oodua Peoples’ Congress
(OPC), to the scene.
Unlike Folorunsho, Wasiu was not lucky to escape; he was
nabbed and almost lynched by a mob, but was rescued by a team of policemen who
took him into custody at the ‘D’ Division, Adewale Ilorin. However, the mob
demolished his home and set his car ablaze, after the OPC men had allegedly
recovered various items including human skulls, bones, students’ uniforms,
human hair, and charms, among others, from the two-room apartment.
Boldly written on a part of the demolished building were
mobile telephone numbers suspected to belong to his patrons. “Apart from being
a vigilante, Baba Muri is also a bricklayer, well digger, who also reared
cattle. So, no one suspected he was into such ritual activities,” said a
bewildered resident who was among a crowd, which thronged the scene when Sunday
Sun correspondent visited.
Confirming the incident, DSP Okasanmi said the case had
been transferred to the state police headquarters for diligent investigation.
“We are interrogating him to know those involved in the business with him; we
have commenced investigation into the matter,”he remarked.
Source: Sun