Opeyemi Ramoni, also known as Alubarika, the second defendant in a murder case pending at Oyo State High Court in Ibadan, acknowledged Monday that the human head and legs he was carrying in photos taken by police officers and submitted as exhibits were new. Oyo State Attorney-General Mr. Abiodun Aikomo, who headed the prosecution team, asked him questions before he responded. “Look at this picture, what can you see?” he was asked after viewing the photos that were submitted as exhibits.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
“Human head,” he said in response. The question, “Is it fresh?” was repeated to him. He said, “Yes,” in response. After showing him the second image, he was asked, “What else do you see?” In response, he said, “Human legs.” He was asked if they were rotting or fresh. “They were fresh in the picture,” he said.
He and the first defendant, Tayo Akinrinola, are on trial at Court 9, presided over by Justice M.I. Sule, on four counts of conspiracy, murder, unlawful possession of a human head, and indecent interference with a dead human corpse. The case was the subject of the continued hearing. In October 2023, the two defendants were charged with planning to kill and dismember a Seun at a community school in the Mokola neighborhood of Ibadan. During cross-examination by the defendant’s attorney, Mr. Adebola Ogungbe, Alubarika had previously stated that he had observed maggots in the body parts and flies swarming around them, while the police had doused them with petrol to eliminate the stench.
The first defendant, Akinrinola, stated in his statement at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, on February 17, when narrating the occurrence that resulted in his detention, that he had cut the head of a body he had discovered in the bush rather than a living human. He claimed to have stabbed Tunde to death before severing his head and other body parts in one of his three statements.
Additionally, Alubarika rejected everything that was mentioned in the statements he allegedly made, claiming that he was coerced into signing them without first having them read to him. The prosecution team’s attorney general asked the second defendant to read from Exhibits B4 and B5 at one point, assuming that he could do so given his senior secondary school diploma. He responded that he couldn’t, with the exception of “Arabic Studies,” which was written as part of the statement. Since he wasn’t the author, he requested assistance from the court interpreter in reading it.
Alubarika (Opeyemi Ramoni), who identified himself as an Arabic teacher, described his role in the case on Monday, as led in evidence by his defense attorney, Mr. Adebola Ogungbe: “I knew the first defendant through my brother.” He was working as a bricklayer. I was travelling from the Gbagi region on October 16, 2023. I was driving when I received Akinrinola’s repeated calls, so I was unable to answer them.
After I parked and gave him a call back, he informed me that he needed the money to pay for his son’s tuition. He replied that he was in the Agbarigo area when I asked where he was. He claimed not to have any money with him when I asked him to come to where I was. I instructed him to wait there for me since I would visit him.
“I called him to find out his precise location after arriving in the Agbarigo area. I watched him exit the police car while being escorted by the officers. When I questioned him about whether he had consumed enough marijuana to warrant his detention, the cops informed me that he had consumed more. When I asked him what had happened, he explained that he had cut off a human head from a corpse he had discovered in a jungle. I told the cops that there was no need for him to untie the bag and show me because the smell would contaminate the air.
When the police demanded that the matter be resolved, Tayo asked me for the N15,000 he had asked me for his son and pleaded with me to add another N5,000 to make N20,000.
The police informed me that they were only collecting N200,000 instead of the whole amount when I tallied the money to give them. I informed them that since I had committed no crime, I was unable to give them the money. Since we had been there for a while, they requested us to transfer to their station to settle it when we began pulling it. Someone arrived in a car, parked, and talked to the cops before we moved. “He’s the one,” is what I heard them say. “Take me to the station,” the man said.
When we arrived, they informed us that they now desired N1 million instead of N200,000. They promised to let me call people who would help me raise the funds. I informed them that since I knew nothing about the situation, I lacked the funds to give them. “Sebi iwo ni olugbeja” (you know how to defend) was the statement made by the police officer who greeted us there. After that, I was confined to a cell.
They advised me to search for the money at dawn, between 12 and 1 a.m., or else I would not like what would happen to me. Three policemen arrived at the cell entry in the morning. At Alapata Community in Apete, where I was residing, one of them said that I was the one bringing up land disputes with other people. He advised me to search for the money instead. They departed after I informed them that I had no money to donate.
I was taken from the cell an hour later. They took Akinrinola and me out around fifteen minutes later. They put the human head on my car. Due to insects, they doused it with gasoline. Some of them used their phones to record us, and then they instructed us to place the body parts in the bag from which they had been removed. They led us to Iyaganku’s State Criminal Investigation Department. When they arrived, they turned us over to the on-duty police officers. They took individual and headshot photos of all three of us. They then led us into the cell. On October 17, it was around eleven in the morning.
They then led Tayo to another location. Taofeek Olalekan and I were taken out to take our statements around two and a half hours later. I got to know the policeman who was in charge of the SRS squad who took Tayo into custody. They asked me to describe what had happened, and when I did, they advised me to echo what the policeman had stated. They asked me to take off my clothing when I refused. They began assaulting me. They struck me with sticks and tightened the handcuffs that held my hands. They said I should follow them to witness what they were doing to me because it was incomparable to Tayo’s treatment.
When I arrived, I discovered him lying down with his hands bound to a chair in tight cuffs. He had blood on his head. I witnessed him being beaten with a pickaxe, hatchet, and sticks. I told them I didn’t want to be treated that way. I promised to help, but they should keep in mind that the people who arrested me demanded N1 million. I was informed that they were unable to write that. I signed what they requested after they typed it down.
The prosecution team leader asked him why he didn’t return home after arriving in Agbarigo and learning what Tayo had done, to which he replied that the police had not released him. The judge postponed the case until April 15 for the final written address in response to his assertion that he was not arrested while in his car with Akinrinola, Olalekan, and the sack containing the human parts.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
