Date: 2017-02-13

Three yet-to-be identified men have been arrested by security agents in Ilorin, Kwara State for exhuming corpses from their graves.

The suspects were said to have been caught by vigilantes at Ile Babanla compound, Okeleru Area in Ilorin West Local Government last Tuesday.

One of the suspects, who was caught in action at about 12:30am on the fateful day, was said to have given lead to the arrest of his accomplice. Some items such as hoe, digger and charms were reportedly recovered from the suspects.

A resident of the area, who craved anonymity had told Pilot Crime said that the suspects had been perpetrating the crime for a long time, but ran out of luck on the fateful day.

A member of the security committee in the community, who does not want his name in print, said they had to change vigilantes providing security services because of the problem.

"We decided to terminate engagement of a set of vigilantes when corpses were being stolen. Again, two weeks ago we buried a woman and the following morning we discovered that her grave had been dug and the corpse tampered with.

"We alerted the vigilante and they promised to fish out the perpetrators of the evil act. Last Tuesday, one of the vigilantes knocked on my door at midnight to inform me that they had caught one of the suspects.

"We followed him to his house and found black pot, mortal and pestle, black powder and some other charms. During interrogation, he claimed to have been praying for corpses," he explained. According to him, the suspects are from Popo Giwa area, Masalasi Gogoro and Alanamu areas.

The suspects were said to have been handed over to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps of Kwara State Command. When contacted, the state Commandant, NSCDC, Pedro Awili, comfirmed the arrest of the suspects.

He said, "They are still in our custody. We are still interrogating them because we have no evidence yet as we didn't see any part of the body with them, but with other exhibits found in their house, it seems they are into evil acts. Serious investigation is going on.

"I can assure you that they will be made to face the law if found guilty of the crime," he added.