Three men are in the custody of the Police in Akure, for the murder of three female students of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo town, for money ritual.

The suspects. Source: Vanguard Nigeria

The suspects – John Adenitire, aka Emir, Fasayo Fasanu, aka Abore and Alfa Abdulrafiu Tijani, a herbalist – said that they killed the students and cut off their left breasts and hands in the name of getting paid N5 million for each of the breasts and hands by suspected ritualists.

They confessed to have buried the remains of the bodies in a thick forest. Two of the bodies – the bodies of Blessing Oladepo and Mary Oluwasemilore – have been recovered by the Police from the thick forest.

Sources said that the ill fate of the students started when they left their rented apartment outside the campus for an unknown destination. Unsuspecting, they climbed motorbikes with Adenitire and Fasanu posing as Okada riders. It is believed that the girls were then hypnotised, taken to a different destination, and then killed.

The suspects claimed that they had delivered the body parts to the middleman who linked them to the ritualists but had not gotten paid before their arrest. This middleman, identified as Sile, was declared wanted by the Police. It was learnt that his clients had their base in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State.

Sources also revealed that the disappearance of the victims was not reported to the college authority until about one week after it happened. That was when a report was lodged with the Police.

Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Gbenga Adeyanju, said that the suspects had been engaged in the crime for a while and had extended their activities to neighbouring states. He said that they would be charged to court for murder after Police investigation.

Adeyanju then declared total war on criminals in the State, and solicited the cooperation of the people of Ondo in giving information to the Police, to make it easier for them to fight crime in the State.