By OLUWATOYIN MALIK

WHEN the news about the arrest of 29-year-old Ismail Wasiu and Shittu Mutairu, aged 35, in Saki Town, Oyo State, broke out on Wednesday over alleged killing and dismembering of a female victim Mujidat for ritual purpose to make money, people held their breath in shock, fear and trepidation.

The spokesman of the Oyo State Police Command, DSP Adewale Osifeso had disclosed that the suspects were apprehended after the police in Saki Division got information that they were caught with fresh head belonging to a female and other body parts.

Osifeso said their arrest revealed the friendship between the victim and Wasiu who invited her to Saki.

Saturday Tribune spoke with the two suspects in an interview which gave full account of what led to their acts.

Below are the excerpts:

Ismail Wasiu:

“I’m 29 years old. I’m an Afaa and native doctor. The man that brought me up was an Afaa, but I moved with herbalists and started doing the two when they put pressure on me to join them.

“I left Saki for Lagos State in 2013 and started working as a houseboy at Magodo. I was taken there by a friend. Three years after, I returned to Saki and started the native doctor work.

“The man who brought me up was an Afaa. We are related. When I got back to Saki, I did not know about reading and interpreting Quran. I only did Wolimat. I was going to mosque once in a while to pray. So I merged being an Afaa to that of a native doctor.

“My first ritual assignment was the one I did a job for a Yahoo boy and it worked for him. He asked for a money ritual and I used a dry human skull for him. I knew the Yahoo guy through a primary schoolmate who was a commercial motorcyclist and used to take the Yahoo guy around. He knew he was a Yahoo boy. I don’t know his name. He came from Ibadan to do the ritual.

“I went to (name withheld) who is also a native doctor and like a brother to me in the neighbourhood. I knew he used to have dry human skulls. But when I went to him, he didn’t have at that time, so he took me to his friend. That one didn’t have also.

“He gave me the number of Doctor who lives in the same area with me. I didn’t know he was doing such a thing. I just knew that he has a chemist shop and used to treat patients in a room at home. I went to him and he said I should pay N60,000 for one.

“I said I didn’t have that much and gave him N50,000. He sold it to me and I used it to perform the ritual. It came out successful, as the Yahoo boy called to thank me profusely.

“When the Yahoo boy came, I was the one who told him he needed a head to do the ritual. I learnt about it in a book of record left by the late Afaa who brought me up.

“To do the ritual, I got dry heads, two hands of iro (an animal), two cobra heads, two heads of olufa (big snake), stool made with iroko tree, schnapps and black soap. I ground everything together, poured the schnapps on it, mixed it with the black soap, poured it in a white breakable plate with cover and placed it in the stool. We placed the remaining alcohol beside it.

“In using it, the yahoo boy would drink from the alcohol before taking the mixture to bathe. He called me that the job was positive, promising to further give me a reward, but I had yet to see him before my arrest, except for the N200,000 he paid me ahead of the job.”

Second ritual job

“When I finished his job, I thought within myself that I should look for means of making more money. I checked the Alfa’s record book again and found out that if one uses a fresh human head whose owner’s name is well known, it will yield a better result than the dry one.

“I went to Mutairu (his accomplice) to explain to him, telling him that I have Mujidat in mind as the prey. He had already told me that he wanted to do money ritual when he got healed of the accident that created a festering sore on his leg. We talked about a week before Mujidat came to Saki.

How I got linked with the victim

“I met Mujidat in Ikeja, Lagos. We met through, a friend I met in a commercial vehicle while going to Lagos. I used to go to him frequently and he introduced me to Mujidat in a hotel where she was doing ‘runs.’ I used to have sexual relationship with her whenever I was in Ikeja, so we became friends. When I returned to Saki, we had each other’s phone numbers and were still dating.

“I used to send money to her; between N5,000 and N20,000. This time, I didn’t tell her anything. I used diabolical prompting (olugbohun) that could never be resisted. Before then, she had come to visit me twice. This time around, when she came at about 6pm, I used incantation (olugbohun) and told her to enter my workroom. She went in and I was with her. Mutairu also came to check us and went out again.

"At about 10pm, I told Mujidat to accompany me to a distance and she followed me without any question. The charm I used since morning was still working. Three of us left for the bush. I told her to sit down, brought out the charm again and reused it.

“As I was making incantations, Mutairu was telling her to be uttering ‘so shall it be (Ase)’.

“They were four incantations and I pronounced all upon her and she was stamping it with ‘amen.’

“I thereafter told her to lie down and asked Mutairu to tie her hands. I strangled her by the neck. When her face contorted in pain, I could not stand it again and I told Mutairu that we should leave her because I never did it before, but he said we should complete the job. I could not strangle her again, so Mutairu took over and completed it.

“When she became lifeless, I cut off her head with a knife and her two hands. I also removed her heart while Mutairu removed her two thighs and private part. We took the body stump to a place beside a rock in the bush and threw it there. We kept the thighs in the bush and cover them with leaves. We brought the head, heart, hands and private part home. I didn’t know what the private part would be used for, I just removed it from her body with the thought that someone might desire its purchase. Mutairu needed the hands.”

How we were caught

“We got home 12 midnight. On getting home, I heard the voice of an Islamic teacher, who is like a father and living in the same house with me. I went out to urinate and put on my phone torch. He asked who was putting on his torch and I said I was the one. Our residence faces the road and he was by the roadside. I was wearing my charmed singlet fortified with amulets. It is for protection and being watchful (isora). He saw the singlet and asked what I was doing. I replied him that I was doing some work inside.

“That was when two of our neighbourhood’s guards called Soludero were approaching. Mutairu also put on his phone’s torch and switched it off again. He repeated it. The Alfa noticed it and asked who it was. I told him it was Mutairu. The Islamic teacher then asked them to check my work room. That was how they discovered the fresh human head and other body parts. We put the head in a plastic bowl and poured gin on it. We also put the hands, heart and private part in another bowl and also poured gin on it for preservation.

“Initially, Mutairu was trying to cover up, but I confessed to what we did. They asked me to take them to where we dumped the body stump and the thighs. Amotekun Corps also came and asked me to pack the body stump and the thighs with the head and others found with me at home. Then they drove me to police station and handed me over to officers.”

On his fate after alleged crime

“I believe this is what God has destined for my journey in life. I don’t know what the government will do about my case, but when my family members heard of what happened, they were just crying, saying that I have destroyed their lives. I have two wives. One has two children aged three and one, while the second one’s baby is just about four or five months old.”

Shittu Mutairu

“I had an accident in Lagos. I fell from a motorcycle and doctors tried to take care of me, but the wound continued to fester. I thought within myself that the festering wound was not ordinary and medical doctors would not be able to handle it.

“I came to Saki and a brother was nursing the wound with herbs and concoctions. For about six months, I could not step out of my room. Later, when I had little respite, I would go out, sit under a tree. That was how I knew Wasiu. People passing by would give me N50, N100. Wasiu and other neighbours would also bring food for me.

“Recently, he told me of a lady coming to visit him that he would want to use for ritual for his clients. I agreed to join him because of what I was passing through. He promised to also help me in getting my leg healed when money comes from the ritual. The lady came as I was sitting by the rock. Wasiu came to me and asked me to come inside his work room. I did. I saw the girl and Wasiu asked me to go. I returned to the rock.

“At about 10pm, he and the lady met me by the rock and we went into the bush. He told the lady to sit and we both joined her.

“He brought out his charms (olugbohun). I didn’t know what he was saying but we were saying ‘Ase.’

“He told the lady to lie down and brought out another and wore it on his arm. He brought out another, laid it on the lady’s chest and stomach. I just noticed that she did not utter a word.

“He had already placed a charm on me to embolden me (ikiya in Yoruba) so my heart became hard and I was not afraid. He gave me incision on the face and body, and I also did for him, but with different charms.

"He strangled the lady on the neck while I was holding her hands. After some time, he said he was tired and I took over. Later, he returned to the neck. After that, he brought out his knife and cut off her head. He also cut her two hands and said he was tired, asking me to cut her private part. I did. He also asked me to cut her thighs but I said I didn’t know how to do it. He took over and asked me to hold her legs while he did the cutting. I enquired on what he wanted to use the thighs for and he said that he wanted to give them to Dr in our neighbourhood.

“We entered the bush side, put the thighs and body stump there and left for home. In his work room at home, I was putting my phone on and off, using it for illumination. That was when Alfa who was living there came and ask who that was.

“Wasiu went out to meet him and said he was the one doing something in his work room. At that time, Soludero guards were in our area and the Alfa called them to check the room we were in. They did and found the body parts.

“A huge crowd gathered and Wasiu took the guards to where we put the remains. We were thereafter handed over to the police.”

On whether he and Wasiu were cognisant of what the law says about killing someone, Mutairu had no response while Wasiu said he had no knowledge of the law as he was not educated.

On what Islam says, as his religion, he responded that it says the perpetrator should also be killed. But Wasiu said that it was need for money that made him commit the act. (Text, excluding headline, courtesy Saturday Tribune)

Update news