Why I went for corpse’s head —Suspect arrested in Oyo

Some years back, the Olomi axis was known for its notoriety in driver union’s clash with law enforcement agents and factional rumpus. But in the early hours of Sunday, January 15, the area came alive again as a 33-year-old Quranic teacher, Saheed Musiliu, was arrested with a human head he allegedly severed from a corpse which he exhumed from the grave.

But the uproar that greeted his apprehension by the community’s vigilance group members turned to violence as some of the residents were alleged to have resisted the move by the police to take the suspect into custody for investigation. They were quoted to have insisted on carrying out jungle justice on the suspect, expressing the belief that he was going to be let off the hook.

The submission of the residents was said to have hinged on the discovery of the phone number of a police officer in the suspect’s phonebook.

Saturday Tribune gathered that while trying to prevent police from taking the suspect away, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Sanyo Division and other policemen were attacked and injured while their patrol van was vandalized.

But the Police Public Relations Officer in Oyo State, Adekunle Ajisebutu told Saturday Tribune that 27 suspects were arrested in connection with the attack on the police and the vandalism carried on their patrol van. He also condemned the action of the mob which wanted to lynch the suspect, saying it was wrong for anyone to have had the intention of taking laws into their hands.

Saturday Tribune had an interview session with the suspect who had been in custody at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku. Below is an excerpt of his confession:

 

Background

I am from Idi Arere, Ibadan. I was living at Boluwaji area before my arrest. I was a Quranic teacher teaching children Arabic. I finished Primary six but didn’t go to the secondary school. I went to a Quranic school. I have five children from two women though the first wife has left me.

 

How I came in possession of human head

I had passed the place where the burial ground is at Aba Afaa, Olomi, Ibadan, two weeks earlier and had noted it. For several days, I had been trying to carry out the act, but my mind would tell me not to. I usually left home around 10.00p.m after telling my wife that I had a prayer session, but anytime I got to grave side, I wouldn’t be able to carry out the act. It was my mind that kept telling me not to carry it out. However, I don’t know the person who was buried in the burial ground.

However, on the day that I actually became bold to carry out the act, I went to the burial ground around 10:00p.m on Saturday, January 14. There is this uncompleted building very close to the grave, and that was where I first stayed till 1.30a.m.

Despite staying there that long, I was still not comfortable with what I wanted to do. My major aim was to dig the grave and severe the corpse’s head; so by 2.00a.m, I noticed that the vigilance members had done their patrolling and had gone to rest, so I went to dig the grave and cut off the head. The grave was not that deep, so it made it easier for me to accomplish my assignment.

However, immediately I accomplished my task, I just saw a vigilance member coming towards me. I don’t know if he had seen me earlier and had watched me carry out the act. The head had dried up, and it was not difficult for me using my knife to severe it from the rest of the body.

But when I saw the vigilance member, I just carried the head and took to my heels. That was when he also raised the alarm, shouting thief, thief, thief! However, nobody came out, and he was chasing me all over the area. There was a car parked around the area, and I hid beside it, which made the man lose track of me.

After a while, something just told me to go and pick the severed head I had dropped while I was being chased. So I went and picked up the head. By this time, the vigilance member had gone when he couldn’t find me.

I had successfully kept the head somewhere, and I thought that I should go and cover the grave. I was almost there when I saw four more vigilance men, and I hid in a bush around the area. However, while I was trying to hide in the bush, the dry leaves around where I hid were ruffling, turning the attention of the night guards on me.

They beamed their flashlight at where I was and I took to my heels again. The four of them chased me up and down the area again, but couldn’t catch me. We were on that till around 3:00a.m. and they split themselves. I first hid inside a gutter, but they discovered me. I ran off again and finally saw a soak-away pit and I hid there. That was where I was finally apprehended.

 

What I want to use the head for

I want to use the head to make money ritual. We were two who wanted to do the ritual, but the other person had promised that he would take care of the financial aspect as soon as I was able to find a head. When I was apprehended, they asked me who my accomplice was, and I told them that his name is Salami Ado.

However, when I was apprehended, they took my phone and tried calling my accomplice, but I told them not to call him. I don’t know if they called him or not, but I know he would have absconded if they called him.

Salami Ado, my accomplice, is a herbalist. He stays at Sanyo area in Ibadan. We wanted to do the money ritual together. He actually wanted me to get him a human head for money ritual but I told him we would use it together since I needed money too. But I also collected N10,000 from him because I had meant to buy the head if could not get one myself.

I had even supplied him a head once. I exhumed it from Target Cemetery at Amuloko community in Ibadan. He paid me N7,000 then, around 2014. This is my third attempt at severing the head of a corpse after digging up the grave.

I used the second head I exhumed for myself, but the purpose for which I did was defeated. I made a charm that money would be available to me at all times but it didn’t work. I was stricken with abject poverty instead. This was what made me decide to work with Salami Ado for the latest one.

However, I didn’t go to the burial ground at Amuloko for my third attempt because it had been converted to a school.

 

What led me into exhuming human heads

I believe I made a mistake; I was suffering so much. I was teaching pupils Quran but I was not being paid by their parents because they were also poor. They could not even afford their wards’ Walimot where I would have made some money from guests. My first wife was a tailor, but she was even part of why I took the decision to make money ritual.

Her mother was the one providing food for us, and it was out of sorrow that I ate the food. She always insulted me that I could not provide for the home and I would be crying. It was when she could no longer cope that she left. My second wife was selling rice, beans and other foodstuff, but we ate everything and ruined her business.

 

How I learnt how to exhume corpses

One of my friends, who is also an Afaa and herbalist had told me that he had been exhuming corpses right from when he was in secondary school. His name was Abideen Elewedu. He told me this when we were discussing our pathetic situation one day.

He took me to where I first experienced how to go about exhuming corpses at Target Cemetery at Amuloko area. We went together like twice before he was caught. When I learnt of his arrest, I left the area and relocated to where I was not known so that I would not be arrested. That was how I lost contact with him.

I thank God for the police who rescued me; the mob wanted to lynch me when I was arrested. They wanted to douse me with petrol and set me alight at that midnight. I was with the policemen till morning.

 

What I have learnt

I am already begging God that if I should be freed from this predicament, I will tell my family members to give me an acre of land at our village in Ido, so I can concentrate on farming. My parents are in Ibadan and they already know what I did. I will abandon my Islamic cleric profession.