Police in Ogun State have arrested a suspected member of a notorious ritualist syndicate, Ifasoji Ayangbesan, for allegedly killing and dismembering one Oyindamola Adeyemi.
The suspect was arrested on Friday, April 28 in his hideout in the Ijebu-Ode area of the state. In order to escape arrest, the 35-year-old suspect reportedly offered the police an N1 million bribe.
The Police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, on Sunday, in Abeokuta, confirmed the arrest of the suspect and the rejection of his bribe.
Oyeyemi said the suspect and other members of his gang had killed their victim, Oyindamola Adeyemi, and dismembered her body for a money ritual.
According to him, the victim was killed in January in the Ijebu-Ode area of the state.
Oyeyemi said the suspect was arrested following a “painstaking intelligence-based investigation”, embarked upon by detectives from Obalende divisional headquarters, which led them to his hideout at Ijade Iloti area of Ijebu Ode.
He said the suspect had been indicted by the earlier arrested members of the syndicate as the person who bought the two legs of the victim. Oyeyemi said the suspect had fled upon the arrest of some members of the gang.
“Since then, the DPO Obalende division, Murphy Salami, detailed his detectives to be on his trail with the view to arrest him and possibly recover the deceased two legs from him and prosecute him with his partners in crime.
“However, luck ran against him when he was apprehended at his Ijade Iloti hideout on the 28th of April 2023. Immediately after he was arrested, the suspect made an offer of one million naira bribe to the policemen, which was rejected.
“On interrogation, he confessed been part of the syndicate that killed Oyindamola Adeyemi, and that he was the person who severe the two legs of the deceased which he claimed he used for ritual purposes,” Oyeyemi said.
The Police Public Relations Officer said the Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Yomi Oladimeji, had directed that the suspect be transferred to State Criminal Investigation Departments in order to prosecute him with other members of his syndicate.