Police uncover ritual killers’ hideout in Ondo, Arrest five

Policemen attached to the Igbotako Division of the Ondo State Police Command have uncovered a hideout where suspected ritual killers keep their victims. PUNCH Metro learnt that the hideout is located in Ago Oyinbo Community in the Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state.According to residents, ritual killers had been using the hideout for the past three years. Police investigations revealed that the suspects, after kidnapping their victims, would bring them to the location and slaughter them.Sequel to the discovery of the illegal activities of the suspects, the youths of the community were said to have reported to the police who reportedly stormed the village and arrested about five people in connection with the crime. The youths also reportedly demolished the building.When our correspondent visited the hideout at the village which is a few kilometres from Benni-Ore-Ijebu Ode Expressway, the mud building allegedly used for the act was found demolished while some of the fetish items found there had been burnt.Also sighted at the hideout were: cow horns, clothes reportedly belonging to some of the victims, palm fronds, bottles of gin, calabashes, ‘Ghana must go’ bags among others .Confirming the development, the Baale of the Ago Oyinbo, Chief Moyebi Okeowo, explained that the ritual killers started using the building in 2012 when the suspects came to him to beg for a space in the village which they wanted to use for a location to shoot a movie. He said he asked somebody to take them to the owner of the land, unknown to him that the suspects had an ulterior motive.He said, “They came to me to beg for a piece of land to shoot their film. I told them I was not the owner of the land and I took them to the brother of the landlord of the land who then took them to the wife of the landlord in Akure.“I learnt they were authorised by the wife of the landlord to use the land and since then they have been using the land. I told their leader to go and report their activities to the police and he later informed me that he had done so.”The old man stated further that he was unaware of the activities of the suspects until last Monday when he got the information that the suspects were using human beings for sacrifice on the land.Also speaking with our correspondent, the Principal of Community Grammar School in a neighbouring community of Kajola, in the Odigbo Local Government area of the state, Mr. Joseph Edosama, said two of the security guards of the school were among the suspects, for conspiring with the suspected kidnappers.However the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wole Ogodo, when contacted on telephone said he had not been briefed on the case.