The Lagos State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of a member of a notorious ritualist syndicate, Ifasoji Ayangbesan, for allegedly killing and dismembering one Oyindamola Adeyemi.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement on Sunday, said the suspect was arrested on Friday, April 28, 2023, at his hideout in the Ijebu-Ode area of the state.
Oyeyemi explained that after the 35-year-old suspect was arrested, he offered the police N1m bribe to facilitate his escape which was rejected, adding that the suspect and other members of his gang were responsible for the death of a victim, Oyindamola Adeyemi, and also dismembered her corpse for ritual.
Explaining that the suspect was arrested following a painstaking and intelligence-based investigation embarked upon by detectives attached to the Obalende Divisional headquarters, Oyeyemi said the suspect was indicted by earlier arrested members of the syndicate as the person who bought the two legs of the deceased victim.
Oyeyemi said Ayangbesan fled immediately when he heard that he had been mentioned by his accomplices as part of the syndicate responsible for the victim’s death.
Oyeyemi said “Since then, the Divisional Police Officer, Obalende Division, Murphy Salami, has 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 alongside his colleagues in crime.
“Luck, however, ran against him when he was apprehended at his Ijade Iloti hideout on April 28, 2023. Immediately after he was arrested, the suspect made an offer of N1m bribe to the policemen, which was rejected.
“On interrogation, he confessed to being part of the syndicate that killed Oyindamola Adeyemi, and that he was the person who severed her two legs which he claimed he used for ritual purposes.”
Oyeyemi said the state Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Oladimeji, had directed that the suspect be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department to prosecute him with other members of his syndicate.
