AKURE, Nigeria — A 26-year-old suspect, Franklin Akinyosuyi, arrested in connection with ritualistic activities and fraud, claims that desperate financial conditions and reduced patronage of his businesses were what drove him to dabble in the dark arts.
The arrest was made by the Nigeria Police’s anti-crime operatives stationed at Funmbi-Fagun Police Station, Ondo town.
The suspect, alongside five other detainees, was paraded at the Police Command headquarters in Akure on Sunday, August 13, 2023.
Akinyosuyi, while speaking to reporters, explained that his dwindling fortunes in both his photography and boutique businesses prompted him to seek spiritual solutions.
He said he turned to a herbalist in Ikirun, Osun State, last year, who then prepared a concoction for him at the cost of N300,000.
The prescribed ritual involved using the human head for baths every Thursday at precisely 1 am. Despite adhering to this for a month, Akinyosuyi found no improvement in his business fortunes.
Demanding a refund, he shared his intention of discarding the human head. However, the macabre discovery was made by the children of his landlord, leading to his arrest.
The ensuing investigation uncovered a chain of individuals involved in the procurement of the human skull.
One of the accomplices, Oyegoke Dare, an evangelist, supplied the skull and other ritualistic materials to the primary suspect.
Another, Oyelade Sarafa, a herbalist, confessed to sourcing the skull from an individual named Asekun, a vigilante in Ikirun.
Two more suspects linked to the case remain at large.
Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, the Police Public Relations Officer for the state, detailed the sequence of events leading to the arrest, beginning from the landlord’s initial suspicion to the broader web of characters involved in this heinous act.
Authorities are further probing the case, and it underscores the lengths to which individuals might go, driven by economic hardship or desperation for success.
