Opeyemi was said to have been
apprehended at Orile-Agege after a local traditional ruler tipped off
the police about his activities.
Opeyemi, who was a former employee of a
registered medical laboratory that supplied blood to hospitals in Lagos,
was said to have delved into buying and selling of blood after he was
fired from his job late last year.
Police sources told PUNCH Metro that part of Opeyemi’s job at his former place of work was to liaise with the hospitals.
Opeyemi’s activities came to the notice
of the traditional ruler when some senior secondary school students
always seemed to be hanging around Opeyemi’s store.
One of the sources said, “Within the
community, everybody knew Opeyemi as a dealer in medical items like
antiseptics, bandages, medical tapes and surgical needles but no one
suspected he was buying blood from students until they (students)
started flocking his shop for no obvious reason.”
PUNCH Metro gathered that as
words had spread that Opeyemi was paying N1,500 for a pint of blood,
making the students to hang around his shop.
The source said, “From his experience as
a lab assistant, Opeyemi knew that blood was expensive. This is because
Nigerians have not imbibed the culture of voluntarily donating blood.
So what he simply did when he lost his job was to entice students with
money, get them to donate blood and sell them at a higher price to
hospitals who assumed he was working with a registered medical
laboratory.
“When Opeyemi was arrested, he confessed
to the crime. He claimed that he ensured that all blood samples were
duly tested for HIV and other diseases before they were sold to
hospitals.
“There were a lot of students in the
community who had at one time or the other sold blood to Opeyemi. Some
of them who were apprehended alongside Opeyemi confessed that several
other classmates were involved. Police detectives later went back to
check the needle punctures in the arms of the students. All the students
involved attended the same school.”
In a related development, another
laboratory assistant, Tunde Adeagbo, was also arrested by the police at
Abule Egba for allegedly arranging blood donors for hospitals for a fee.
A police source said community leaders
at Abule Egba were suspicious of Adeagbo’s blood donation advocacy,
thinking it was a cover up for another evil purpose.
“Whenever he was able to convince some
people, Adiagbo would take them to some hospitals to donate blood.
Although he never paid them for that, the hospitals involved paid him a
fee for bringing in donors.
“The community began to fear that the blood donation was a cover up for ritual purposes,” the source said.
The Lagos State Police Commissioner Mr.
Umar Manko confirmed the arrests. He said, “Opeyemi and Adiagbo were
arrested when their respective communities raised alarm over their
activities. Both men are currently under investigation at the State
Criminal Investigation Department, after which the law would take its
course.”
PUNCH
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