CRIME 2 suspected ritualists arrested Man in prison for beating pregnant wife to death with human head in Niger
An FCT High Court in Maitama has remanded a 37-year-old man, Mathew Ankyoor, in Kuje prison for allegedly beating his pregnant wife to death.
Ankyoor was arraigned before a vacation judge of the FCT High Court, Justice A.O. Ebong yesterday on a three-count charge bordering on culpable homicide punishable with death by the FCT Commissioner of Police.
The defendant, a resident of Lugbe Zone 5 Village, Airport Road, Abuja, was alleged to have on or about June 5 at about 8:30pm committed a criminal offence by causing the death of one Doosur Ankyoor, who was with an eight months pregnancy, by beating her up severely and throwing her face to the ground with intention of causing her death.
He was also accused of causing the death of an unborn child. He was further alleged to have committed criminal offence to wit: preventing a child from being born alive on the said date by beating up the deceased, throwing her face on the ground and caused the death before the birth of her child with the intention of preventing the child from being born alive.
Two suspected ritualists, Abdulrasheed Aminu, 22, and Ismaila Mohammed, 27, have been arrested with human head at the popular Paiko Junction, Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The two were said to have been arrested by Police Special Tactical Squad set up by the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, during a stopand-search operation on the Minna-Suleja road.
The suspects were said to have severed the head of an 8-year old boy, identified as Hassan Abubakar of Bakajeba village in Paikoro Local Government Area of the state for ritual purpose.
According to a statement yesterday by the Niger State Police Command’s Public Relation Officer DSP Babalola Olanrewaju Adewole, the suspects who were from Lupa and Makera communities, confessed to have committed the crime during interrogation by men of the State Criminals Investigations and Intelligence Department (SCIID) Minna.
The statement quoted the father of the slain victim, Mallam Abubakar Shuaib, as saying that his son was last seen on Saturday, August 26, while taking a kettle of water from the house to some unknown persons, who was said to have been waiting outside his house on the fateful evening.
“And since then, the boy was nowhere to be found until he heard that the police had arrested a suspect with a human head which he later identified the victim to be his son’s,” the PPRO said in the statement.
The statement further revealed that the two suspects, along with one Ibrahim who was still at large, severed the head of the deceased victim with the aid of a sharp knife.
The suspects, according to the statement, were still being held at the SCIID, Minna and would be charged to court after the conclusion of investigation.