“We Grind Human Heads To Make Concoction For Ladies In Search Of Husbands, Contracts” – Native doctor confesses

Three suspected human parts dealers, two of them Islamic clerics, are now helping police detectives to break the demand and supply chain of a trans-border syndicate which trades in human skulls.

The suspects already arrested in connection with the illicit trade include Clement Omodijie as well as two clerics, Olasukunmi Owolabi and Usman Saliu who were all arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, attached to the Lagos State police command, Ikeja. The suspects were nabbed recently when they were about to supply three human skulls to their buyers at Ikorodu.

According to police sources, the suspects alleged that the skulls found in their possession were sold to herbalists who in turn claimed that they used them to prepare concoctions for their sick customers. They also alleged that some were sold to customers from across the country who needed the skulls to perform rituals.

Of late, several syndicates involved in human parts have been busted within Lagos, a development that made the state Police Commissioner, Umaru Manko issue a directive to detectives especially those in SARS to intensify their searchlight on such illicit trade. This led to the arrest of the suspects who were accused of going to the Igbogbo cemetery in Ikorodu at night to exhume human skulls.

The native doctor who gave his name as Olasunkanmi Owolabi, is a 43-year-old native of Oyo town. He also disclosed that the human concoction could be used to cure stubborn sores, mental illness, sickle cell anemia and epilepsy.

Arrested with Owolabi were his two cohorts, Clement Omodijie and Usman Saliu a.k.a. Alfa. 

Omodijie, a 54-year-old indigene of Ekpoma, Edo State, says he is married with three children and a grave digger at Gbogbo Cemetery, Ikorodu, Lagos on a monthly salary of N22,000. He said he had worked at the cemetery for five years before he was arrested by SARS operatives.

In his shocking confession, Owolabi said, “I am an Alfa and a native doctor. But I am not yet registered. I finished my Arabic studies in Kwara State about 13 years ago and relocated to Ikorodu to work as a native doctor. I have the ambition of building a native hospital if the government gives me an approval.

“I started by praying for sick people. Last year, I met this cemetery worker (Omodijie) and told him about the products (human parts) they were wasting. I learnt about using human skull to do powerful charms and medicine after travelling to Kano, Kaduna and other parts of the north.

In the course of my duty, I travelled to Kano and Kaduna states. Most of my colleagues taught me that I could get better in healing people especially barren women if I add a little bit of ground skull to my drugs.

I was reluctant because it is a taboo to be found with a human skull in Nigeria. I refused to give it a try but in recent times, my business started dwindling. People were no longer coming back for prayers and some of my colleagues told me to look for ways to make my drugs more potent. It was then that I decided to give it a try.”

In Kano, I met a Yoruba native doctor who told me that if i mixed ground human bones with soap and some herbs, it would bring luck for my clients or patients.

He explained that it could also cure chronic and stubborn sores and help pregnant women to deliver without complications or operation.

Owolabi said, “It can also cure madness and other terrible diseases that defy orthodox solution.

”Women who are looking for husbands can also mix the ground bones with their powder. When they see a man they like, especially if they want a husband, they would rob the powder and talk to the man and the man will fall for them. it can also bring good luck and help job seekers to secure employment.

It can make somebody to become rich. It can cure epilepsy. A woman can also bath with it and men will be begging her to marry them. I sell a tablet of the soap for N2, 000. It depends on the pocket of the buyer. Some buy it for N1000. I sell it around Ikorodu and Ajah in lagos.

On how he met Omodejie, Owolabi said, “I knew the grave digger to be a worker in Gbogbo cemetery at Ikorodu. When he wanted to throw away some (human) parts, I told him that I needed them. I normally give him N4,000 per skull.”

On their arrest, Owolabi lamented that he never knew that he was wanted by the police. “I was shocked when the man who claims to be an Alhaji turned out to be a policeman. I tried my best not to mention the name of Omodijie but when I realized that my captors were policemen from SARS, I had to tell them everything they wanted to know. This was necessary before they will assume that I am into ritual killing”, Owolabi stated. He also pleaded with Journalists  that his name should not be mentioned in this report for fear of losing customers. “I am telling the truth. Please, do not publish this story because my customers will run away”, he begged.

On his part, Omodijie said, “I was content with being a grave digger before I met Owolabi in a restaurant in front of the cemetery in Gbogbo area of Ikorodu. Since I met Owolabi, my life has not been the same again. I have moved from one problem into another.

I was enjoying my N15, 000 monthly salary as a grave digger before I met him and he lured me into supplying human heads to him at N4, 000 each. The naked truth is that there is nothing reasonable I have done with the N4,000 per human head that he has been paying me. I used it to drink gin or smoke cigarettes with it. It is the devil’s money. I hardly fall sick since I was born. But after selling human heads to him, my health started  deteriorating.

Since abandoning his grave digging job for the illicit business, life has become unbearable for the young man.

Hear him, “I buy drugs as if it is food, making me to spend more money than before. “I was moulding blocks before I secured a job in the cemetery as a gravedigger. We were paid on a daily basis. We used wooden or machine molder. But whichever moulder we used, we charged the owner N500 per bag of cement, which can give one about 40 blocks. If we did three bags, we collected N1, 500.

When I got a job in the cemetery, I was happy because it is not as hard as molding blocks.The salary was small but I was enjoying it.

“Normally, after three months, we will dig out the skeletons to make space for others. In Igbogbo cemetery, there are areas that are not owned by anyone. It’s the general burial ground and it gets filled up easily. To create a room for others, we will dig up the skeleton and cremate it. What I normally do is to select the bigger corpse  and throw it inside the bush without the knowledge of my colleagues. I will pick them up on my way home at night”, he stated

On how his trouble started, Omodijie said, “My trouble started the  day I went to buy food opposite the cemetery. That was where I met Owolabi and he said there was something he would like  to tell me. He asked whether I was a worker in the cemetery and I said yes. He said I should give him a human head and I asked him what he meant. he said the head of a corpse already buried.

We have cemetery rules, which forbid us from doing such a thing. I told him that I would not be able to do that, and he left. But thereafter, each day I went to the restaurant to buy food, he would accost me with the same request. I insisted that I would not do it because I dont not want to lose my job, but he said it was better to sell human parts to him than allowing them to waste. “I summoned courage to ask him what he wanted to do with human heads and other parts. he said he was a native doctor and Alfa, and that he wanted to use it to make medicine.

He said he would grind it into powder and mix it with certain herbs for pregnant women to drink in order to deliver their babies without complications or operation.

Asked how he obtained the heads he sold to Owolabi, the embattled Omodijie said, “The graves where I normally bring out the skulls from are shallow, and coffins are not used for the corpses brought there because of religion or financial status of the owners. It is cheaper to bury a corpse in a shallow grave than to do so in a deep, cemented or marbled one. Most burials done in shallow graves are temporary. That is why that section of the cemetery is called the temporary site. After some months, the corpses buried in shallow graves are excavated and burnt. That was why Owolabi pleaded with me that I should not  the skulls to waste and rather, I should sell it   to him instead.

Four of us work in the cemetery, but the other workers did not know that I was smuggling out human skulls and other parts to sell to native doctors. it was only two heads I had sold before detectives from SARS arrested me. There is no useful thing I can say I did with the money.

Like a case of medicine after death, Omodijie is currently pleading for leniency, claiming that he was deceived by the devil.

“Besides, the skeleton belongs to no one and I felt it was being recycled. Instead of setting it ablaze, why not dedicate it for procreation. I really don’t know my crime, why police chose to punish me. I am innocent. I do not sell fresh corpse because it is an abomination. It was just like going to the garbage to select things that can still be of use and sell them. If it is a crime, I am sorry. Please, forgive me and do not allow my children to suffer unjustly”, he pleaded 

His words, “I was deceived by the devil. I am pleading for forgiveness because I did not kill anyone to sell their heads. I sold the skulls of corpses already buried and had decayed. I did not know that it would land me in this trouble,” he pleaded.

The third suspect, Saliu, who hails from Ilesha in Osun State, also claims that he attended an Islamic school where he learnt Arabic studies.

“I do not believe that human skull can be used to prepare charms but some of my colleagues, including Owolabi, believe in it. I knew that he had access to human skulls, that was why I contacted him to help me. I know colleagues who had demand for it; all I did was to contact Owolabi. I never knew that it was a set-up by the police to arrest us. I am terribly sorry and will assist the police to find those who I supplied the skulls to.”