Nemesis has caught up with a 19-year-old boy, Sunday Sodipe, that has allegedly dispatched six persons to their early graves in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State in June 2020 for ritual purposes.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Nwachukwu Enwonwu, paraded the suspect, as well as one herbalist, Adedokun Ajani, 50, that has allegedly been sending Sodipe to carry out the dastardly operations, and one Shehu Usman, 20, who bought a phone stolen by Sodipe from one of his victims.
The police boss, who showed the suspects to journalists at the headquarters of Oyo State Police Command, Eleyele, Ibadan, also paraded another four-member gang of suspected serial ritual killers that have also been terrorising Akinyele Local Government Area. He gave their names as Abiodun Olasoji, 35; Adeleke Moses, 54; Bamiji Ojeyemi, 65; and Aderibigbe Ademola, 36.
The police also paraded five other persons for defilement of minors, one person for rape, one person for sodomy, five armed robbery suspects, and two persons nabbed over possession of 47 bags of weeds suspected to be Indian hemp.
According to Enwonwu, on the killings in Akinyele Local Government Area, the principal suspect, Sodipe, was arrested after Usman was arrested in connection with the crime and the Techno mobile phone belonging to a 29-year-old pregnant woman, Azeezat Shomuyiwa, who was murdered at Ijefun, L-Adisa Community, Ojoo Area, Ibadan, on June 4, 2020, was recovered from him.
He stated that after Usman was interrogated, he denied his involvement in the crime but gave useful information, which subsequently led to the arrest of one “notorious hoodlum, who identified himself as Sunday Sodipe,” adding that Sodipe confessed that he “single handedly masterminded the crime and explained in details how he invaded the victim’s residence, where she was brutally attacked, robbed her before Abe was later murdered in cold blood.
“He explained that his modus operandi is to target females and attack them with dangerous weapons, robbed them before hacking them to death,” saying further that Sodipe confessed to have also masterminded many of the killings in the local government.
Fielding questions from journalists, Sodipe said he killed Barakat Bello, an 18-year-old female student of the Department of Science Laboratory Technology (SLT), Federal College of Animal Health and Production, Moor Plantation, Ibadan at Oloro area of Kara in Akinyele town on June 1, 2020, adding that he also smashed the head Mrs. Azeezat Somuyiwa with a big stone at Ijefun community, near Ojoo, on June 5, 2020, and stole her Techno mobile phone, which he sold to Usman.
Sodipe stated further that he also killed Grace Oshiagwu, 21, a National Diploma student of Oke Ogun Polytechnic, Saki, Oyo State, on Saturday June 13, 2020, at Idi Ori, Sasa, Ojoo area of Ibadan. He also said he was behind the killing of a five-year-old boy, Mujib Tirimisiyu, at Olorunsogo Phase II, Tose, Moniya, Ibadan, when he was defecating behind their house on Monday June 22, 2020.
He said his last operation was carried out on June 29, 2020 before his arrest when he went to Cele Alhaja Area of Moniya, Ibadan, where he brutally attacked a woman, Adeola Azeezat, 45, and her daughter, Oyeyemi Dolapo, 23, with hand shovel after he entered their house through the ceiling, and stole their phones. The duo, according to the Oyo CP, were injured on their heads, and they have been responding to treatment.