Operatives of the Kwara State Police Command have arrested five suspected ritual killers for the murder of a commercial sex worker identified as Abigail in the Patigi Local Government Area of the state.
The suspects – Peter Tsado, Mohammed Gbara aka Madi, Abubakar Mohammed aka Mallam Baba Pati, Mohammed Ahmadu Nma and Bala Karin – were apprehended in Patigi as well as Bida and Minna in Niger State, while the other three disappeared into the thin air.
According to The Punch, the police said the five suspects allegedly participated in the murder of Abigail who was picked up in a hotel in Patigi on June 29, 2021 but murdered for a ritual.
The Police Public Relations officer, Ajayi Okasanmi, in a statement on Friday, said a young man identified as Peter Tsado went to Victory Hotel, Patigi, to negotiate for the service of Abigail.
After agreeing on a term, Tsado reportedly took her on a motorcycle to his house in the town where he and one Mohammed Gbara strangled her and beheaded her.
The police also disclosed that they later dumped the remaining part of her body in the bush before they took the head to Bida in Niger State to meet their accomplices.
The statement reads in part, “On 29/6/2021 at about 23.08hrs, an unknown young person later identified as Samuel Peter Tsado of Patigi town in the Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State, went to one Victory Hotel in Patigi and requested the service of a commercial sex worker by name Abigail, other names unknown. After the monetary negotiation of N5,000, both Peter and Abigail left the hotel premises to an unknown place. Ever since then, both of them were not seen again.
“On the receipt of the report of a missing person, the Commissioner of Police, who suspected foul play, directed the case be taken over by the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for a discreet investigation. Investigation took detectives to Bida and Minna in Niger State where three other suspects were arrested. They confessed to the offence and also confessed to having been involved in an earlier ritual attempt using a hand of a yet-to-be-identified victim.
“The suspects took detectives to the bush where the carcass of the deceased was recovered. Efforts to recover the head of the deceased are still in progress as the custodian of the head is still at large, but he will certainly be arrested and brought to justice.”
Okasanmi said the suspects would face the wrath of the law at the conclusion of investigation, adding that the Commissioner of Police assured members of the public of the safety of lives and property.
