51-year-old farmer practising his craft in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Yesiru Salisu, was arrested by men of the Nigerian police force after he was caught with severed human parts from a Christian cemetery in Ijebu-Ode after he had sworn an oath to never partake in the act of exhuming body parts.

After his arrest, Salisu told officers that he was sent by a native doctor, Lekan Mapariwo, who had promised to give him money to treat his swollen legs in exchange for four human skulls.

Salisu also alleged that Lekan Mapariwo the native doctor had promised to pay him the sum of N10,000 if he helped him get the skulls.

According to Salisu:

“He said if I could get him four skulls, he will give more than N10,000.”

When asked about how he came about the skulls, Salisu said:

“When we got there, he told me that I would help him get four human skulls. He did not tell me before we were going to the cemetery to collect human parts. He just told me to come along with him and that he had a job for me. When we got there, he said that was the job I would help him to do, and I said, ‘You didn’t tell me we were coming to a burial ground.’ He only said I would help him ‘to do something.’ He then said I should not worry and that nothing would happen. I said, ‘This is a serious job.’ He said, ‘The human parts are already decayed. They are not useful again.’ He asked if I didn’t want to take care of my leg and I said I wanted to. I told him that since the sickness started, I had abandoned my maize farm. I have been in pain for a long time without money or food. I hardly even had breakfast in a day, but as a result of not having anything or anybody around to help me, I decided to follow him to help him get them (skulls). When we got there, he broke the grave and brought out one head and asked me to break my own and I broke it, then I brought out three human skulls.

“There was no security man around there. The cemetery did not have a gate. It is an open space. We broke the graves with a stone from their sides and took the skulls out. When we got there, he taught me how to do it. He did one and gave me the stone, since he said he would give me money to treat my leg.

“He only broke the side of the grave. He checked the date. You know a corpse of five years is different from a recently buried corpse. We did not break the skulls off. They were already scattered; we took the skulls from the graves with ease. He did one and I did the other three. I did as he did and put them into a bag. After doing the job successfully, we started heading back home. Some people saw us; I believe they know him, so they challenged us. I stopped but he fled, leaving me behind. I was then arrested.”