Fear grips community over six female mutilated corpses

One of the corpses

Adebayo (not real name), a commercial bike rider, rode his motorbike furiously along the Atele Community in Ikorodu Central Local Government Area of Lagos State on December 2, 2015.

He loves speed, but today he was speeding for a reason. He wanted to reach the car wash company in the community before they close for the day.

He had been planning to go to the car wash since today, but always wanted to pick one more passenger. Before he knew, time has gone. The motorbike was dirty and he just needed to have experts give it a thorough.

He sighted the car wash company ahead and heaved a sigh of relieve. They were still there.

He slowed down as he rode nearer.

He sighted the manager. He knew the face. He had washed his motorbike here several times.

“Hi! I had like my motorbike to be washed. Fast! I have somewhere to go.”

The manager looked the motorbike all over and beckoned to one of the boys.

As he climbed down the motorbike, Adebayo smelt a stench.

“Ha! What’s that smell..”

“We don’t know. But it’s like a goat died or something,” replied the manager.

Another reason Adebayo was speeding; he was almost urinating in his trousers. His bladder was about to burst. He quickly left the car wash and moved swiftly into the nearby bush.

The stench was stronger in the bush. He unzipped his fly, started urinating. He tried to hurry his job, but you couldn’t possibly hurry nature. He spat and glanced around. That was when he saw the decomposing corpse of the lady. The body was close to the bank of the canal. The lady, whoever she was, was stark naked and lying faced down. But it was clear from her posterior that it was the corpse of a female.

A tattoo was later seen on her buttock and her navel appeared to have been pierced.

Adebayo quickly raised the alarm. Tunde Ajala, who works at the car wash company, was among those that rushed to the scene.

Soon, the scene was crawling with residents of the community. Two after that, five more female corpses were discovered.

There was outcry and panic among the residents. Everyone husband worried about his wife and every parent worried about their daughters. Tension enveloped the community.

The residents reported to the Council Secretariat and Igbogbo Police Station.  The Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA) was also invited.

The Lagos State Police Command immediately started investigation. The investigation may soon become cold, especially since the police said they didn’t know or could ascertained the identity of the dead women.

The Police Spokesman, Joe Offor, said they were hoping friends and family members of the deceased ladies would soon come to report them missing. He added: “Anybody who has a female missing, should report to the nearest police station.”

Ajala recounted:  “We discovered the first body on Wednesday, LASEMA officials came on Thursday to move it. She was moved at night. It was  after she was brought from the canal that we knew she was a lady. There was a bold tattoo on her buttock and her navel was pierced.

“Three days after the first body was discovered  in the canal, we started smelling another horrible stench from a nearby bush in the community. Everybody thought it was probably a dead animal. On Friday when someone went into the bush in the community to defecate, he saw a beheaded lady. The  breasts  had been cut off. Like we did at the discovery of the first corpse, we rushed to report at the Igbogbo Police Station and council Secretariat.”

The council officials and officials of LASEMA arrived on Saturday. They came with one body bag. But when they left, they left  with four corpses.

“Some of our youths in the community were trying to assist LASEMA officials to clear the path to the scene where the second body was discovered. It was while combing the bush that they stumbled on the other four bodies. They were apparently dumped or floated to different directions in the bush.”

Ajala remembered how frustrated the  LASEMA officials were when they realised they needed five bags to bag the corpses, not just one.

Ajala implored the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, to compel abandoned land owners in the state to develop their property. He said such move would reduce and prevent ritual killers from using abandoned land for dumping of dead bodies. 

A female resident,  who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the killings in Ikorodu were becoming alarming.

She said: “ There’s no day that we wouldn’t hear about one killing or another in Ikorodu!  What the killers do to these bodies is what I don’t understand. Before the bodies of the ladies were evacuated, we couldn’t sleep in the neigbhourhood due to the stench from the decomposing bodies. Government should wake up to its responsibility. Government should do more in protecting lives of an average Nigerian.”

When our correspondent visited the area, some labourer were busy cutting the bush where the corpses were found.  The stench of the decomposing bodies had not abated.

The resident added: “My advice to mothers is to teach their daughters to grow in the fear of God. I don’t know the condition the parents of those girls would be by now.”   

Already speculations have become rift over the corpses, with some members of the community labelling them prostitutes. According to them, only prostitutes wear tattoo. Ironically, only two of the corpses had tattoos.

And those who were sceptical about the victims being prostitutes, reminded others that there weren’t any hotel thereby.

Some of the residents said a day would not pass without seeing a corpse on the road of Ikorodu. They explained that they had seen a lot of suspected ritual killings, but these ladies, appeared to stun and awed the community because of their numbers.

The woman continued:  “Before the female bodies were evacuated from the community we couldn’t sleep in the neighbourhood due to the stench that came from the mutilated bodies. Some youths in the community fell sick due to what they inhaled from the stench coming out within the period they were in the bush.”

Another resident who does not want his name in print said, when the late monarch Oyefusi was alive, such crime was not on the increase but now they find corpses at every area of Ikorodu road.

He said: “The major problem we have in our community is none availability of the local vigilante. Had there been security guards,  patrolling the community, those who dumped the corpses, wouldn’t have found it so easy.”

Another resident, who simply identified himself as Johnson said: “The bush where the bodies were dumped had been there for long without the owner making use of the area. The spot where the corpses were found had been under contentious. The place has been turned to a place where some hoodlums used as their hideout. We see them smoking Indian hemp and sometimes they rape innocent girls. They do this and get away with it because there’s no security in the community.”

Jamiu Idowu said: “Residents in Ikorodu couldn’t walk at night anymore for fear of being kidnapped by ritual killers. They appeared to be everywhere now. The Christians cannot go to night vigil while the Muslim also cannot go to their gathering at night.  Everyone is  afraid of kidnappers and the ritual killers. Things were not like this in the seventies. People are too conscious of money and material things today.”

Idowu called on the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni to investigate the death of the ladies, because by now “some of their parents would have declared them missing.”