The Oyo State Police Command has arrested seven suspects in connection with the discovery of skulls in an abandoned building at Soka area of Ibadan last Saturday.

This was disclosed by the command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Olabisi Ilobanafor, yesterday in Ibadan.

Decomposing bodies, skulls, human parts and some half-dead people believed to have been hypnotised by the ritualists were found in the bush.

Among the suspects arrested were two persons caught in the area and five security personnel working in a nearby company.

While vowing that the command would take all necessary steps to bring all culprits to book, Ilobanafor said the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) had swung into action that would lead to the arrest of other suspects.

Explaining further how the den was discovered, she recalled that a group of 100 area boys had invaded the toll gate behind state urban Mass Transit Yard, located at Soka, in search of two missing cyclists when they discovered an uncompleted building where two women and five women were found chained and totally unkempt.

While one Abideen Akanmu who claimed to have been employed by one Gbadamosi was arrested, the police are on the trail of the leader of the gang who is now at large.

All the suspects arrested, she added, would be charged with murder and unlawful possession of fire arms. The captives rescued from the bush, she said, had been taken to hospital for treatment while corpses found were also deposited at the morgue.

Items recovered at the building were three dane guns, three single barrel, one bow, 16 arrows, 22 cutlasses, 40 live cartridges, seven table knives, one axe, two iron files and one handset.

•Text courtesy Vanguard. Photo, courtesy The Nation, shows curious members of the public people trooping to the ritualists’ den. Inset are two of those rescued from the dungeon.