A 30-year-old man, Femi Ade, is in the police custody for allegedly stealing corpses at a cemetery in Lagos.

Mr. Ade, a married man was arrested by police officers from the Ojo police station on June 3rd during a stop and search operation. The suspect was riding an unregistered Suzuki motorcycle, and had a black polythene bag tied to the motorcycle. The lack of license plates caught the attention of the police officers who stopped him to demand for an explanation.

Startled by what they described as an offensive odour emanating from the polythene bag strapped to the motorcycle, the officers questioned Mr. Ade about the contents. The suspect reportedly could not give the officers a convincing answer, and was subsequently asked to open the bag.

Shocking discovery

The opened bag revealed decomposed human parts. The bag allegedly contained a severed female head, two hands, two legs, intestines, and other unidentified human parts.

The suspect was taken to the Ojo police station, and upon interrogation, confessed to have severed the human parts from the corpse of a teenage girl, identified as Sakirat, from the Era cemetery at Ijanikin. Mr. Ade, however, said he was only running errands for a security man at the cemetery.

“My name is Femi Ade and I am married with a child,” he said. “I am from Ijebu-Ode. I am a bricklayer and an Okada rider. I used to work as a security guard at the Era cemetery, but I had stopped working there a few months ago. When I was still working at the cemetery, I was with one Baba Ikale, who is also a security man at the cemetery.

One day, one man came with his family that they want to bury their daughter called Sakirat. Baba Ikale and I gave them a parcel of land where we buried the girl. They paid Baba Ikale some money and they gave me five hundred naira for my assistance. It was Baba Ikale that came up with the idea that we should remove the body and sell to people who need them. I was only running errand for Baba Ikale. He asked me to take the human parts to a man called Lanre at Ojo Market. This is my second time of doing this, the first time, I was paid N1500 and this time, I got N2500.”..

Police on their trail

Police spokesperson, Frank Mba, who paraded the suspect at the Oduduwa police station on Monday with the decomposed human parts, said the Lagos state police command is on the trail of suspected criminals who buy and sell corpses in the state.

“Investigation into this case is ongoing and the essence of this parade is to clear the insinuation that ritualists are on the prowl in Lagos,” he said. “This is a case of a deceased taken from the grave and the parts severed to be sold. The suspects are desperados who are morally bankrupt raiding and scavenging cemeteries and removing human parts for money. The police officers visited the suspect’s house and found human bones and other parts in his room. Part of our target is to know the motive behind the act, and arrest other people involved in this dastardly acts and bring them to face the law.

Mr. Mba, a superintendent of police, assured Lagos residents that the force was capable of exposing such grisly merchants, and appealed to people who have buried relatives recently at the cemetery to assist the police in their investigations.

“We would like to assure Lagosians that there is no cause for alarm as the police is prepared to nip all crime in the bud,” he said. “We give kudos to the DPO of the Ojo police station and the officers who made this arrest. The suspect tried to bribe the policemen with N50, 000 but as professionals, they rejected the amount and arrested the suspect. We would like to appeal to the public and to families who had buried their loved ones at the cemetery in the past few weeks should come to the Ojo police station and provide us with useful information that will help us with our investigations.”