RITUAL: Friends Exhume Dead Body, Cut Off Head In Ibadan

Two men, Salami Abdullahi, 35, and Adebisi Aliu, 30, were on Thursday arraigned before an Iyaganku Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan, Oyo State, for allegedly cutting off a dead body’s head after exhuming it for ritual purposes.

The defendants, Abdullahi and Aliu, of undisclosed addresses, faced a two-count charge bordering on conspiracy and indecently tampering with the dead.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Magistrate, Mrs A. T. Oyediji, granted each of the defendants bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum.

Oyediji added that one of the sureties must be a proven religious leader from each of the defendants’ places of worship.

She, thereafter, adjourned the matter till April 24, for hearing.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Insp Opeyemi Olagunju, had told the court that the duo allegedly conspired to commit the crime.

The defendants, Olagunju alleged, indecently tampered with a dead body at Orita burial ground, Ibadan, on January 8.

According to him, the defendants allegedly cut off the head of the dead body after exhuming it from its grave with the intent to use it for ritual purposes.

Olagunju said the offences contravened Sections 242 (1) B and 517 of the Criminal Code Laws of Oyo State 2000.

If found guilty, Section 242 stipulates two years imprisonment for offenders.