Sorcerers Nabbed with 50 Bodies, 20 Skulls
By Tume Ahemba
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian police have arrested 30 witch-doctors in a
raid on fetish shrines in southeast Anambra state where over 50
decomposing bodies and 20 human skulls were discovered, a police
spokesman said Thursday.
The heads, genitals and other vital parts of some of the bodies, found
in a teak forest in Okija village, had been severed, a sign they may
have been killed for ritual.
"We saw more than 50 bodies in various coffins. There were several
skulls, some of them really fresh," Anambra police spokesman Kolapo
Shofoluwe told Reuters by telephone.
Ritual killing is common in some parts of Nigeria where many people
believe they can become instant millionaires by using human organs to
make potent charms. Many Nigerians mix traditional religions with
Christianity or Islam.
Police said preliminary investigations showed that the people died
after the sorcerers engaged them in an animist ritual.
As part of the ritual, the victims pledged their property, including
bank accounts, to a deity upon their death, the officer said. Their
relations were made to believe they would also die if they refused to
give up the property.
"We are looking beyond the deity," Shofoluwe said, adding that at
least 20 shrines were raided.
"The priests may have killed the people for ritual, or to obtain their
property by false pretence or they may have been running a human parts
market," he said.
Shofoluwe quoted a villager who had tipped police off, as saying the
sorcerers ate the flesh of some of their victims.
Local media reported Thursday that the witch-doctors enjoyed the
patronage of rich businessmen and influential politicians in eastern
Nigeria.
"I am sure our investigation will reveal a lot of things in the next
two or three weeks," said Shofoluwe, who said he did not know the
identity of the sorcerers' patrons.
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