Oluyole Security Monitoring Team in the Oluyole Local Government area of Oyo State has reportedly arrested two suspects, Rasheed Dauda, 41, and Ayoade Kehinde, 32, for possession of human bones.
The suspects were apprehended in Ibadan after the team received information about the bones hidden in the ceiling of the room in Kehinde’s house.
Kehinde, who revealed the bones were taken from the remains of a deceased woman, said he and his partner decided to keep the bones in the ceiling of his house, because they were yet to decide on what to do with them.
However, Dauda, who admitted seeing the woman’s body under a mango tree with others, denied picking the bones with Kehinde, saying he never knew the second suspect had returned to where the body had been seen.
In the meantime, OSST Commander, Olusegun Idowu, who briefed the Nigerian Tribune on the arrest, said that before the arrest, the team was briefed on how Dauda, who allegedly got drunk in a beer bar, began boasting that he would soon become rich.
“Community members who heard of the bragging began to wonder what he meant. They also noticed the theft of chickens and other agricultural products in the Bare community.
“It was some of his friends who felt he was laughing at them when they were arrested for stealing chickens who turned on him, saying that what he was involved in was more terrible than what they had done”, Idowu stated.
In an interview, Dauda who said he is from Popoyemoja but lives in Bare Community said, “What happened was in March 2021 I went to Ajanla Community for work. Kehinde and two other boys accompanied me. We were on our way back when we stopped near a mango tree to pick some. One of the boys with us said he was hungry.
“When we arrived at the mango tree, the boy ran up to meet us and invited us to see what he had discovered. When we arrived, we saw a decomposing human body and I told them to let us go home, and we left there immediately.
“Since then I hadn’t been to the area and didn’t know anything until a few days ago when a boy ran up to me and said someone said I had human bones in my house as I wanted to put those thieving chickens on display. I called Kehinde and asked him if there were any human bones with him, and he said no, asking me where he would find any when he didn’t unearth the bones of his deceased father.
“The next day, when I returned from a meeting of the members of the OPC, I heard again about this claim. I asked Kehinde and he denied it.
“To my surprise, I heard this morning that Kehinde said that we both went to look for the bones. I had no idea. In fact, the bones were found at his house and not at my house”, he narrated.
However, in Kehinde’s confession, he mentioned Dauda, saying that they both chose the skull and bones from the decaying body.
He also said he didn’t know how the skull disappeared from the room where he originally kept the bones, causing him to hide other bones in his ceiling.
“It is true that human bones were found with me. I hid them in the ceiling. One day I went to the farm at Ajanla Community with Dauda. We also had Falafolo and Apesin with us. On the way to the back, Falafolo saw a dead man and ran to meet us by the side of the road. When we got to where he found the body, Dauda and I picked up the bones and put them in a cellophane bag.
“We also picked up the skull. When we got home, I told Dauda that I couldn’t keep the bones with me, asking him what to do with them.
“We decided to put the bag in a room opposite my wife’s. After seven days I went to check but I couldn’t find the skull. Falafolo was angry. We wondered who was supposed to pick up the skull and thought it might not have been behind Dauda.
“When I called him to ask him he said he didn’t know. He rained curses on whoever must have done it and we decided to put the bones in the ceiling. That’s the main reason the bones were with me. We didn’t want to use them for anything.
“Since I came into the world, I have never sold human bones. We did not even have the identity of the deceased. We just found the body near a mango tree. It was not buried, he was just thrown into the bush. We could see the cloth the deceased was putting on. It was Ankara with a red colour. The deceased was a woman”, he stated.
Meanwhile, the commander said the suspects have been handed over to the Toll Gate Division of Oyo State Police Command.
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