An Islamic cleric, Alfa Dauda Tijjani, a herbalist Olawale Shodolamu and a grave digger, Seun Falana have been arrested and paraded by Lagos State Police command for dealing in human parts.
It was gathered that Tijani, 42, who resides on Omomwunmi Street, Orege Ajegunle, was intercepted by policemen attached to Area ‘E’ Command, Festac, at the weekend, who insisted on knowing the content of the polythene bag he was carrying.
Crime Guard gathered that the stench from the bag drew the attention of the policemen.
Upon opening it, the content was discovered to be a human skull.
During interrogation, he told the Police that a herbalist sent him to get the skull. His confession led to the arrest of the herbalist, Shodolamu, 70 and Falana, 37, at Trinity Cemetery, in Ajegunle area of the state.
Tijjani said he bought the skull from Falana for 10,000 naira.
A mild drama, however, played out yesterday, during an encounter with the suspects, following a verbal war between the Islamic cleric and the herbalist.
While Alfa Tijani claimed the herbalist sent him to buy the human skull, adding that he did not know what he (herbalist) wanted to sue it for, the herbalist said, “You (Tijani) are a liar. Why did you not tell them what the skull was meant for?
Turning to this reporter, the herbalist said, “Tell him to raise his trouser up. At this point, he took two steps to where Tijani stood, raised his trouser, only to reveal a sore on his right heel.
Continuing he said, “he ( Tijani), came to meet me to administer native medicine to the sore. He said he had tried several medications to no avail.
“I told him to get dried human skull, grind it and apply its power on the sore, that it would heal.
“I told him he would not need to use a whole skull, that if he got one, we could share it . He collected N20,000 from me, to get it. But I got to know here, that he bought it for N10,000”.
“When confronted with the herbalist’s claim, Tijani nodded his head, saying, “ it is true”.
On his part, the grave digger said the skull was a dried one, adding that whenever he was instructed to dig graves for fresh corpses, he would see dried skeletons, which he claimed he usually kept and sold to whoever wanted to buy. (Vanguard)