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Lagos: Police Nab Islamic Cleric, Community Chief, Eight Other Suspected Ritualists
The police command in Lagos state says it has arrested a gang of 10 suspected ritualists, who specialise in killing people and selling their body parts to ritualists.
The command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest on Friday while parading them before journalists in Lagos.
Mr Hundeyin said that the leader of the gang, a 33-year-old man, Ademola Akinlosotu, used to exhume corpses from cemeteries and sell the parts to money ritualists.
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He said those arrested included a community chief, an Ifa priest, an Osun priestess, an Islamic cleric and a trado-medicine practitioner.
He said the suspects were arrested through intelligence reports from members of the public.
Mr Hundeyin said that a report obtained by the police also revealed that the suspects usually lure people to their hide-out, adding that such people would never come out alive again.
He said exhibits of different human parts were recovered from the suspects.
He said the police were on the trail of other suspects.
The spokesperson said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were completed.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the parade, the leader of the gang, Mr Akinlosotu, also made some scary confessions.
He said he got the human parts from dead bodies buried at the cemeteries, before graduating to actual killings – a job he had been doing for years.
Mr Akinlosotu said he moved to killing people to harvest parts because his clients requested fresh parts rather than dead body parts.
He said while he and some members of the gang would do the killings, he would supply the parts.
Mr Akinlosotu said he usually supplied the parts to a 52-year-old man, Ahmed Wahab, aka Alfa Bororo, who operated from Badagry in Lagos state and Ogun, to supply his clients.
According to him, a fresh human head is sold at N45,000 or N50,000 while a dry human head sells between N30,000 and N35,000; heart for N70,000 and hands for N50,000.
Mr Akinlosotu also said that he only killed two persons, which included a friend he met through social media before he was arrested.
He said before they killed anyone, the herbalist would be contacted to consult an oracle to determine whether the killing would be successful or would bring trouble.
The suspect alleged that a traditional ruler in Badagry requested him to kill his son because the son was giving him problems.
He also said that the day they were to carry out the killing was the day the friend he met online visited him, and he was killed.
Mr Akinlosotu said that all he needed when he killed was the person’s head, the heart and the hands.
President Bola Tinubu met with security chiefs, including Tunji Disu, the inspector-general of police (IGP) in a closed-door session on Thursday to address a series of “rising terror attacks” across the country.
The meeting followed an escalation in violence, including recent deadly raids in Benue, Plateau, and Borno states.
The nearly two-hour meeting, held at the State House in Abuja, began in the afternoon after the security chiefs arrived discreetly and ended around 5:10 p.m.
Those in attendance included Christopher Musa, minister of defence; Nuhu Ribadu, national security adviser (NSA); Adeola Ajayi, the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS); and Olufemi Oluyede, chief of defence staff (CDS).
Others were Waidi Shaibu, the chief of army staff; Kelvin Aneke, chief of air staff; and Idi Abbas, chief of naval staff.
As of the time of filing this report, details of the meeting had yet to be issued by the presidency.
However, there are indications that the sit-down may centre around the rising terror attacks and intensified assaults on military outposts across Nigeria, particularly in the north-east, which culminated in the recent killing of several high-ranking officers.
On Monday, a commanding officer of the Nigerian Army was killed following an attack by suspected fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) on a military base in Kukawa, Borno state.
The attack came about a week after suspected Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters attempted to attack military positions in Ngoshe, Gwoza LGA of Borno.
On Tuesday, Nigerian troops repelled an early-morning attack by suspected ISWAP fighters on a military base in Doron Baga, Kukawa LGA of the state.
Speaking during an interfaith breaking of the fast with members of the Nigerian Armed Forces at the presidential villa in Abuja last Friday, Tinubu said the country would “ultimately prevail against all forms” of insecurity.
The president said the efforts of the security forces had continued to weaken terrorist groups and bandits operating in different parts of the country.
He assured the armed forces of continued investment in modern equipment, intelligence, and logistics to strengthen their operational effectiveness.
In a major political shake-up on Thursday,12 members of the House of Representatives formally defected from their various political parties to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, announced the defections during a plenary session, citing internal party crises and leadership disputes as the primary reasons for the lawmakers’ exit.
Of the 12 lawmakers who defected, six left the Peoples Democratic Party for the APC. Five members abandoned the Labour Party and the PDP for the ADC, while one member moved from the Young Progressives Party to the ADC.
The development has heightened concerns about growing instability within political parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Those who defected from the PDP to the APC are James Barka (Adamawa), Kwamoti Bitrus Laori (Adamawa), Zakaria Nyampa (Adamawa), Kobis Thimnu (Adamawa), Midala Balami (Borno), and Mohammed Bargaja (Sokoto).
Lawmakers who defected to the ADC include Afam Victor Ogene (Anambra), Peter Aniekwe (Anambra), Lilian Orogbu (Anambra), Jessey Onakalusi (Lagos), and Murphy Osaro Omoruyi (Edo).
The Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over plenary, disclosed that some other members had also written to the leadership of the House notifying it of their intention to leave their current parties.
He, however, said the letters and the destination parties of the lawmakers would not be disclosed in their absence.
While announcing the names of the defectors, Kalu said the reasons given by the lawmakers were similar to those previously cited by others who had defected. He added that the House would not read the letters during the session in order to save time.
According to him, the letters would only be read when the concerned lawmakers are present on the floor of the House.
During Wednesday’s plenary, Garba Inuwa and Abdullahi El-Rasheed from Gombe, as well as Mohammed Audu (Taraba) and Joshua Obika (FCT), defected to the APC, while Adewale Adebayo (Osun) left the PDP for the Accord Party.
In a series of tense exchanges spanning late 2025 and early 2026, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly warned Donald Trump and the international community that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already escalated into the beginning of World War III due to Russian aggression and its growing alliances.
While Zelensky has warned that Vladimir Putin’s actions are dragging the world into a global conflict, Trump has frequently flipped this narrative, accusing Zelensky of “gambling with World War Three” by refusing to make immediate concessions for a peace deal.
“I said that we would have World War III. The President (Trump) didn’t hear me…him with his guys,” Zelensky said in a televised interview on Wednesday.
“I’m not sure they (the United States) can estimate that Russia will support Iran with weapons, drones, and missiles. And—100 percent—it’s helping now with air defense.”
Pointing to the situation in his country, Zelensky said the next stage of the Iranian war could be troop deployment, saying there are 10,000 North Korean soldiers currently in Russia.
“Yes, they are on the territory of Russia, but they can come to Ukraine,” he presumed. “It can be the same with Iran; Russia can send troops.”
Zelensky said countries in the Middle East have remained neutral on the Ukrainian conflict because of their long history of economic relations with Moscow.
“They understand Russia is the aggressor but are not loud about it or strong on sanctions,” he said. “Now they are beginning to understand what it means to live under attacks.”
Reports in Western media suggest Russia is sharing drone warfare strategy learned in Ukraine with Iran, potentially boosting Tehran’s ability to hit U.S. and Gulf interests in the Middle East.
The war, now on Day 13, has affected at least a dozen countries, with no ceasefire indication in sight. The U.S. has struck thousands of targets and has not indicated boots on the ground.
“They (Iran) are pretty much at the end of the line,” President Trump said Wednesday night. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to end it immediately.”
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