Pastor beheads lover, buries body in church

 A pastor of the Holy Gathering Evangelical Church of God, Papalanto, Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, Oluwatobiloba Ipense, has been arrested by the police for allegedly killing his secret lover, Railat Sanni, for ritual purposes.

The suspect, in charge of a white garment church, was said to have beheaded the victim, severed her two hands and buried the decapitated body in his uncompleted church.

Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command also arrested the pastor's accomplice, Daniel Sopeju, who claimed to be a prophet in another church.

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, yesterday, paraded the two suspects at the crime scene, where  residents of Papalanto, a community bordering Lafarge Cement factory, thronged by their hundreds  to witness.

Iliyasu, who supervised the exhuming of the decomposed body of the victim, said the suspect and his accomplice were arrested on March 26.

According to him, the police command received a report of a missing person at its divisional headquarters in Ewekoro on March 26.

He explained: "The case was reported by Adebola Saheed that his younger sister, Raliat Sanni, left home since March 21 and was yet to return. On the strength of the report, our operatives at Ewekoro Division led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Oluwarotimi Jeje, swung into action and embarked on technical intelligence investigation."

The commissioner, however, disclosed that the principal suspect was arrested following a discreet analysis of facts surrounding the disappearance of the victim, as he was the last person that had contact with her.

He explained that in the course of interrogation, the pastor confessed to killing Railat and burying her inside his church after removing her head and two hands.

Iliyasu, who described the murder as the height of wickedness, stated that forensic investigation into the case had already commenced, adding that the case will eventually be charged to court.

Ipense, however, denied killing the victim. He insisted that it was his accomplice, Sopeju that killed her.

According to him, Sopeju led seven members of an occult group to his house with the aim of luring him to become a member.

Ipense, who claimed to be teaching Accounting and Commerce at Methodist High School (Private), Arigbajo, said the group had earlier asked him to submit names of his church members from which they eventually picked Raliat.

He said, "It was not true that I killed a woman, it was Mr Sopeju Daniel and a woman that wanted to make me join their occult group that did the killing. They said that they were going to collect a ransom. So, they collected the names of my members and picked the name of Raliat Sanni. Having mentioned her name, they asked me where she was living and I told them she was living at Wasimi. They later got her and brought her to my church. Mr Sopeju brought out a knife and beheaded the woman and after beheading her, he collected her blood and put it in seven calabashes."

The pastor explained that the group told him that the severed head and hands would be shared by members of the occult group.

On his part, Sopeju denied the allegations levelled against him by Ipense, but admitted that he and Ipense all belonged to white garment churches in the area.