Two burnt, four arrested as sweeper discovers ritual killers’ tunnel

A tunnel, allegedly used by suspected ritual killers was discovered at Obadeyi Bus-Stop, Ijaiye area of Lagos State.

The tunnel was discovered by a female sweeper, who heard the voice of woman, crying for help at about 6am from the tunnel. The discovery of the den threw the community into panic.  

Two suspected ritual killers, alleged to have been found in the tunnel were burnt alive, while four others were rescued by soldiers and policemen.

Yesterday evening, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, along with some policemen, arrived the scene with five sniffer dogs.

The area was like a Mecca as people trooped to the area to witness jungle justice being carried out by mob on those alleged to be involved in the ritual killings. Commercial activities were grounded.

According to some members of the community, preliminary findings showed that the ritual killers target pedestrians in the early hours of the morning and late at night.  These killers would drag their victims into the tunnel, where they allegedly kill them. It was further alleged that the ritual killers had been operating in the area for years.

The tunnel has many entrances. During the search, it was discovered that one of the entrances, led to an uncompleted outside. When the  building was searched, cooking stove, pots, clothes, female bra and other items were found.

A resident said: “Two of the ritual killers ran out of the canal in an attempt to escape, but they were overpowered. They were set on fire along the side of the road. A soldier brought out two others around 7:30am from the den. Those two would also have been burnt, but for the determination of the soldier and some policemen who rushed to the scene. When the Lagos State CP, another two suspects were arrested. ”

One of the residents, Femi Idowu, said: “We heard that ritual killers dragged a woman into the canal and cut off her breasts. The woman was screaming for help. It was her shout that attracted the attention of a sweeper. The sweeper informed some members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), who were close to the place. When the men got there, they couldn’t access the canal. Some soldiers, attached to OPMensa got to the scene and bravely entered the canal. They brought out the suspects.”

Another resident, Kunle said: “The discovery of the den came as a shock to every one of us. Many of us in the estate used to pass through that bridge on a daily basis; we didn’t know that such a horrible thing was going on under that bridge.  God knows how many people had been killed there.  When one of the suspects was brought out, he said they were 24 people working under the bridge. At least 16 Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards were recovered from him. The ATM cards are recent ones.”

Mr. Adebayo Tijani, another resident said: “That was not the first time such incident would be happening in this area. We had similar incident in 2008 at Ahmaddiya Bus Stop; some people were arrested then and they claimed to have killed a lot of people and supplied their body parts to some highly placed Nigerians.”

 

Our correspondent gathered that it took the intervention of soldiers and policemen to stop further jungle justice.

Eye witnesses said that the first indication that some untoward activities might be going on underneath the bridge, which also serves as a drainage collector in the area, emerged around 7am in the morning.

Another version of the story claimed that the street sweeper accosted a young man who crawled out from the tunnel. She reportedly claimed that the man appeared appeared shaky. And when he was further interrogated, he allegedly said that he would rather than die, than confess. Thus, he was set on fire.

A carpenter, Tunde Adenipon, said: “  I saw the young man when he was being interrogated. He didn’t want to talk until he was slapped. He said he was not ready to confess to anything. He brought out a charm; a kind of small gourd which he swallowed in the belief that he would not be killed. People later set him ablaze, and that was even after policemen and soldiers had arrived on the scene.”

The incident caused a heavy gridlock, affecting the Abule Egba axis.  The combined team of soldiers and policemen shot sporadically into the air many times before they could get away with two of the suspects.

A woman, who gave her name as Mama Jide, said: “I wish they could spare those being killed; not because I really cared about them, but because of the victims that we heard are still inside the dungeon. The road should be destroyed to find the victims and free them. Some people claimed to have heard a child crying inside there.”

A member of the community said: “This morning, a Highway sweeper heard the voice of a woman crying for help inside a tunnel; she raised the alarm. Passersby moved closer to the tunnel and saw a man trying to escape through the tunnel. They grabbed and asked him to confess. The man immediately brought out an object and swallowed it; he told people that he wouldn’t confess no matter how much he was tortured. He said he was ready to die. For two hours, he stones and bottles were hurled at him, but he didn’t die. Not until he was set on fire. He and his friend were killed.”

The first person, who identified himself as Rashidi from Ilesha, was tortured for several hours before being set ablaze for failing to confess.

Before he was set on fire, his head was smashed with a stone and four tyre placed around him.

The second man, who was grabbed while trying to escape, was not given a chance to say anything. He was tortured to death. He was later set him ablaze in the presence of security men.

One of the four suspects, arrested by soldiers, said that some of their members were still inside the tunnel. He allegedly confessed that they operated with guns.

The man, who dressed like a mad man and claimed that he was trekking from Sango in Ogun State to the area, was caught with about three different banks ATM cards, clothes, BRT tickets, SIM card and other items in his custody.

A soldier entered the tunnel and walked through to come out in another area but could not see anybody inside the tunnel. The soldier disclosed that there are other channels inside the tunnel, leading to different routes. After the soldier’s revelation, eight people also entered through the tunnels but couldn’t find anybody.

A witness, Idowu Akinyemi, said: “A LAWMA woman, sweeping, heard noise from the underground. She came to call people, including me. It was a motorbike rider that summoned courage and entered the tunnel. People were scared to enter the tunnel, but someone was throwing stones from there. The cyclist crawled into enter the hole and caught the person. He forcefully pulled him out. He refused to disclose what he was doing inside the tunnel. Rather, he swallowed a substance.

“They set him on fire, but he didn’t burn; rather his body started peeling. He boasted that he wouldn’t die. This infuriated the mob, so his head was smashed with a stone and then he was burnt. Not long after that, we caught two others. Soldiers took them away.”

Biola Ajayi said: “It was after the first suspect was caught, that another ritual killer came out and surrendered. He confessed that the woman, who screaming was heard, was with a baby. He said they were both dead. We discovered that there are different channels into the canal when we tried to search for the woman and child.”

One Kunle, said that when policemen got to the scene, they refused to enter the tunnel. It was a soldier that entered and later came out with a suspect.

Kunle said: “We were surprised when the soldier came out with another suspect. The suspect held a black calabash. He was immediately shot on the leg. We were supposed to burn him, but the soldiers wouldn’t allow it. They took him away.