Confusion As Residents Find Baby's Placenta With Muslim Cleric

The discovery of a baby placenta in the residence of a man, identified simply as Alfa Gani, is causing confusion in the Laduba community, Ogidi area of Ilorin, Kwara State.

It was gathered on Thursday that the discovery was made when some volunteers went round the Laduba community to appeal for financial contributions from residents for the repair of a faulty transformer in the area.

It was said that the volunteers perceived offensive odour at Gani’s residence, which they later reported to other members of the community.

It was said that curious to know what smelled, some members of the community rushed to Gani’s residence and demanded an explanation for the offensive odour oozing from his house.

An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity, said that Gani initially accused the community members of intruding into his privacy.

He was said to have rushed to the Oloje Police Station to report the community members.

The source added that before Gani could come back with the police, the community members had entered his house and discovered a boy with a baby placenta.

The enraged community members were said to have beaten up the boy, making him to confess that he was asked to prepare a charm by Gani, who allegedly exhumed the placenta.

While this was going on, our correspondent gathered that a woman, whose baby naming ceremony was recently held near Gani’s house, arrived at the scene.

On seeing the placenta, she was said to have rushed to where the placenta of her new-born baby was buried, only to discover that it was missing. She was said to have raised the alarm, alerting the community members to the ugly development.

When he came back with the policemen to arrest the community members, the commotion was still in progress.

The source said, “The residents narrated their discovery to the policemen. It was at that point that the policemen decided to search the entire house including an uncompleted building behind the suspect’s house, after which they discovered some human parts.”

It was gathered that the enraged mob vandalised Gani’s house and set it on fire.

Policemen, who were overwhelmed by the crowd, managed to prevent them from lynching the suspect as they whisked Gani away to their station.

It was learnt that the incident fuelled speculations that there were dens of ritual killers and markets where human parts were traded in Ilorin.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Kwara State Command, Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, however, told our correspondent that there was no den of ritual killers in the state capital.

He said, “That is not true. What was discovered was not a den of ritual killers, but a suspected criminal who was used to performing fetish activities.

“The man was looking for a placenta of a new baby, exhumed the buried placenta and used it for whatever yet-to-be identified purpose.

“He just came back from jail. He went to where a placenta was just buried about three days ago before the incident. He dug up the placenta and while he was doing that, people saw him and tried to do things their own way.

In the process of damaging his house by the youth, the police got there and arrested the suspect with the exhibit.

“The police have started investigation to get to the root of the matter.”