Police Detain Five Individuals Found with Human Skull in Niger for Suspected Money Ritual
Two of the individuals, Isah Mohammed (26 years old) and Idris Mohammed (28 years old), hailing from Sakpe village in Edati Local Government Area, were reportedly apprehended with the human skull concealed in a bag during a routine patrol by another security agency.
Following their capture, the two suspects were handed over to the State Police Area Command in Bida for a more thorough investigation. During the course of this inquiry, they disclosed the identities of three additional individuals who had aided them in the gruesome act of exhuming a corpse and decapitating it.
Confirming this incident in Minna, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Wasiu Abiodun, reported that a sister security agency had intercepted the suspects while they were travelling in a Mitsubishi Lancer vehicle at the toll gate along Bida-Minna during a passenger search operation on September 11, 2023, in the afternoon.
According to him, “During police interrogation, the suspects claimed that they obtained the human skull from their village and were aided by three other individuals to the grave where the skull was exhumed.”
The other individuals implicated in this case are Ibrahim Jiya (aged 18), Suleiman Usman (aged 22), and Abdullahi Usman (aged 24), all originating from the same location.
The police spokesman further stated that the three suspects were also apprehended and confessed that the skull was dug out from the burial ground in Sakpe village, belonging to Ndako Daniyan, who passed away three years ago in the same village.
“Two of the suspects, Isah and Abdullahi, claimed to have met an individual named Alfa Suleiman from Kwara State in Bida three weeks ago. He instructed them to obtain a human skull for a money ritual and advised them to take it to someone in Minna, providing N30,000 for the purpose. The unknown recipient instructed them to call him when they reached Kpakungu, and he would meet them.”
The five individuals have been relocated to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Minna for a comprehensive investigation and the conscientious pursuit of legal proceedings in the case.
