The Police Command in Niger has confirmed the arrest of two suspects in Lapai Local Government Area of the state for allegedly killing a 4-year-old boy for rituals.
The command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abiodun Wasiu, on Saturday in Minna confirmed that the two suspects were arrested in connection with the incident and investigations had commenced.
Abiodun assured that justice would be served while warning the public against mob action.
This is as police rescued the suspects from being lynched by an angry mob after the remains of the 4-year-old boy, who had been missing for four days, were discovered.
An eyewitness said that one of the suspects, identified as Emmanuel, a building materials trader, had allegedly connived with his gateman to kidnap the child and kill him.
He said the two suspects allegedly killed the child and removed his vital organs, including his private parts, eyes, ears and heart, while his remains were put in the sack for the gateman, whose identity was unknown, to dispose of.
“The gateman entered a motorcycle to a stream where he was to dispose of the remains, but on dropping the gateman the motorcyclist noticed blood dripping from the sack.
“The commercial motorcyclist alerted the bystanders and police,” the eyewitness said.
The Police then arrested the suspect who allegedly confessed that he was sent by his landlord to dump the body; saying that they were responsible for kidnapping the boy who had been declared missing for some days.
One of the residents around the area, Mr Abdullahi Musa, said that they never knew Emmanuel was a ritual killer, saying that he was lucky the crowd which had gathered did not get him first before the police came.
“There are evil men in every community, Emmanuel is one of them.
“We have set his house on fire. We wish he was the one we got, we would have killed him,” he said.
Another resident, Mrs Maryam Kwambo, said: “Since the creation of Lapai local government area, we’ve never encountered such a radical and wicked situation as today.
“We will get to the roots of this. We will get justice for the child he killed.
“Just four days ago, we heard information about the missing child and no one could give an account of his whereabouts.
“Only to discover that Emmanuel had him all this time and he killed him. This matter should be handled properly. We seek justice.”