Cultism: Teacher beheads ‘lover’, buries corpse in church

The police in Ogun State have arrested a teacher for allegedly beheading his secret lover and burying her in a church he owns.

Elijah Oluwatobi Ipense, an Account and Commerce teacher at Methodist High School, Arigbajo, was arrested alongside his accomplice, Daniel Supeju, the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, said.

Ipense, said to be an acclaimed pastor of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Elebute area of Ewekoro LGA the of state, allegedly killed woman, Raliat Sanni, part of requirement for membership initiation.

He allegedly confessed that he was introduced to the cult group in December 2017 when he did his church anniversary and since then, “friendship” with the cult group began.

“In the course of interrogation, the pastor confessed killing the victim and burying her in his church after removing her head and two hands for reasons only known to him. He mentioned one Pastor Daniel Supeju of Iyana Egbado as his accomplice who has also been arrested,” Iliyasu the as cult said, adding that “The victim was a “secret lover” of the pastor who eventually hacked her to death.”

He said forensic investigation into the case has commenced and that the accused would be charged to court.

While fielding questions from journalists, the suspect said Supeju and a woman took him to the occult group and he was told that the group was going to collect ransom for his membership.

“So they collected the names of my members and picked the woman and said she was the one they wanted. After collecting the blood, he (Supeju) removed the woman’s head completely and her hands. By that time, I was shaking because I could not hold it anymore. She is a member of my church, though not a regular member. I don’t know how those items they claimed they recover from my house got there. I really regret my actions,” he said.

The brother of the deceased said she “left home on the March 21 and did not come back. But the following day, my mother came to meet her pastor to ask for her whereabouts. He told my mother that Raliat owed N200,000 which he claimed that she borrowed from him.

“He even told my dad that they should go to the station together to report, but my mother told him not to worry. But on March 26, I went to report the case to the police. She has been appearing to me in my dream.

“On March 31, I brought policemen to this church to ransack everywhere. I told the police that she was buried there because I was seeing her spirit.

“She is a divorcee with five kids; she is a hairdresser, living in her house with her children in Wasimi. She is 35 years of age and 5th in the family.”