Yahoo News
written by Aderogba Obisesan, AFP
Monday March 24, 2014
Ibadan, Nigeria - Scores of rioters went on the rampage on Monday outside an abandoned building in Nigeria dubbed the "House of Horror" after decomposing human remains and skeletons were found there.
At least 20 people were injured and 12 vehicles damaged when about 50 people brandishing sticks and machetes were prevented from accessing the property in the southwestern city of Ibadan, an AFP correspondent said.
The run-down, one-storey house, surrounded by undergrowth and strewn with the rusted hulks of at least five tractors and a dozen other vehicles, has been cordoned off since the grim discovery Saturday.
Police have so far not divulged any theory on how or why scores of skeletons and rotting corpses came to be found there, but black magic rituals are suspected among locals.
Several severely malnourished people were also found wandering in the bush near the building, which is in the Soka area of the city. Reports said at least 15 others were found shackled inside.
"We want to rescue our people who are still underground and crying for help. But the police are saying no and we are angry," one rioter told AFP.
One man was said by eye-witnesses to have been shot in the stomach by a local gang member in the rioting, one woman added. His condition was not immediately known.
- Overwhelming stench of death -
The grisly find came after a group of motorcycle taxi riders reported that some of their members had gone missing and were believed to have been abducted.
Kidnapping victims in Nigeria are sometimes tortured or sacrificed in black magic rituals, and local media have reported the sale of human body parts across the country.
Inside the building, there was an overpowering stench of death and swarms of flies, forcing onlookers to cover their noses and mouths with facemasks, an AFP reporter said.
Personal belongings such as clothes, shoes, sandals, bags, bank cards and cooking utensils could be seen littered on the floor of its eight rooms, he added.
Locals said they believed the building, located about one kilometre (less than a mile) from the main Lagos-Ibadan highway, was being used as the offices of a construction firm.
About 50 bags of solidified cement were visible in the building.
"For a long time, we have been noticing some movements in this area and we alerted some security people. But they did not react," said local community leader Isiaka Bello.
- Perpetrators 'will be punished' -
Oyo state governor Abiola Ajumobi visited the scene on Monday and assured residents that those responsible would be brought to book -- and called for locals to report any suspicious activities.
"Those behind this dastardly act will be punished by God. We too will punish them when we get them. May we not have a repeat of what has happened," he said.
"I urge all of you to be very watchful. We have come to sympathise with you and to dig out the entire surrounding. The entire surrounding will be combed.
"Some suspects have been arrested while some are on the run. But we are on their trail," he said, adding that the government would seize the land and property.
Police said on Sunday that six people, including five security guards allegedly armed with guns, bows and arrows, were arrested at the scene.
"Anybody who is found wanting or connected with this heinous crime will be prosecuted. We are investigating and six suspects are in our custody," said state police commissioner Mohammed Indabawa.
Vanguard news, Nigeria
written by Staff
Thursday March 27, 2014
BADAN— EXPECTATIONS of hundreds of people whose relatives are still missing were dashed, yesterday, in Ibadan when the demolition of the kidnappers’ den at Soka in Ibadan, where hundreds of people have been killed by suspected ritualists, was stopped midway by men of the Oyo State Police Command.
The people who came from different parts of the country claimed that some victims were still trapped in a dungeon which is yet to be located.
This came as 42 SIM cards of various networks were found on a man that pretended to be a madman.
The arrest of the man followed the jungle justice meted out on him by angry youths after the discovery of the den last Saturday. The youths mobbed the man and another one in separate parts of the city.
Vanguard gathered that the incidents took place at Oke-Ado area of Ibadan, where a man feigning madness was caught and set ablaze.
Eyewitnesses said the man disguised as a madman while a pistol, foreign currencies and three ATM cards were found on him. Police took his burnt remains away.
The other suspected kidnapper was attacked at Queens Cinema area, but the police rescued him.
Confirming the two incidents, the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Olabisi Ilobanafor, said three identity cards of different names and N11,600 were found on the man rescued at Queens Cinema. Forty two SIM cards of various networks were also found on him.
The order
On the demolition of the kidnappers’ den, the main building used by the kidnappers as torture chamber, was about being pulled down when policemen said “an order from above” had put the demolition on hold.
Immediately, scores of policemen who had been deployed to the place left in droves leaving a few of them behind.
While people were waiting for the next line of action, some members of Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, stormed the den with red piece of cloth tied round their heads.
After making incantations, they claimed some people were still somewhere at the den.
Later, another message came that everybody should leave the area for security men to do their job.
Governor Ajimobi, through the Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo said that the demolition was stopped to allow the team of forensic experts from the police headquarters in Abuja carry out their investigations.
The governor also directed environmental health officers to fumigate the forest and the entire area to prevent outbreak of epidemics.
Why demolition was stopped
No sooner had the demolition of the buildings started than the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Ndabawa, called the Chairman of Oluyole Local Government, Prince Ayoade Abass Aleshinloye, informing him of the need to stop the exercise to allow the team of forensic experts from the police headquarters in Abuja carry out their investigations.
Abass Aleshinloye was at the site with his Ibadan South West Local Government counterpart, Mr. Taoheed Adeleke and the General Manager of Ibadan Local Governments Property Development Company, Mr. Lekan Babalola, to supervise the exercise.
The police boss said if the exercise continues, concrete evidence that would help the police in their investigations would be destroyed.
The demolition and clearing of the bush will, however, resume tomorrow as the forensic experts are expected to have completed by then.
Abass Aleshinloye and Adeleke said efforts were being made to ensure that the speculation in some quarters of a possible dungeon in the forest was properly investigated and the site cordoned off.
Accord Party, APC govt trade blames
Meanwhile, the Accord Party, Oyo State Chapter, has called on the National Human Rights Commission and civil societies to step into the Soka house of death saga to get an unbiased report.
The party alleged that the state government should be held responsible for the atrocities committed in the den.
The party, represented by Chief Ayodele Adigun, former Secretary to the State Government, said the land belonged to the Oyo State Government, having revoked the site from its earlier occupiers.
Responding to the allegation, the All Progressive Congress Publicity Secretary, Dauda Kolawole, said: “The people of Oyo State are in a state of grief and shock at the horrendous discovery of ritual killers’ den in the state.
“The situation calls for sober reflection from all and sundry. To be confronted with this cheap politicking in the name of infantile accusation by the Accord Party is like opening the fresh wounds of the people of the state who are still mourning their dead and lamenting the ugly incident.”
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