Ganiyu Maruf, a suspected ritualist who was recently arrested with human skulls claims that he wanted to quickly become rich, so he teamed up with an accomplice to buy human parts.

Maruf and Basit were arrested recently by the Atiba Unit in Amotekun Corps, Oyo State. The skulls had been discovered by residents to be hidden in an area at Agunpopo. The suspects were seen around a bush at the community when they were about to retrieve the skulls from where they kept them.

Maruf, a bricklayer, said in an interview with Tribune that he was previously arrested for possessing a human skull.

“Before my arrest by Amotekun, Alhaji Adura, Kajola and I bought human skulls from an Oyo man called Dauda a.k.a Baba To. I had bought from him only once and it boomeranged.

On the day I bought the two heads from Dauda for N30,000, I learnt that he had been arrested. I called Aafa Basit and asked him to go and keep the head. We both contributed the N30,000 equally and paid for the skulls to be used by us for money ritual.

I knew about Dauda’s work because his elder sister was married to my father. I told him I needed two and he sold them to me.

He had once been arrested for possession of human skulls by the Oyo State police command. When he was arrested the second time about three months ago, he mentioned Alhaji Kajola. Alhaji Kajola exposed Alhaji Adura, and Alhaji Adura named me as one of Dauda’s buyers.

By then, I had dropped the two skulls with Basit. Three of us were arraigned in court, and remanded in prison. We eventually got bail and I returned home about a month ago.

I learnt that Dauda was bailed and couldn’t go to court. He was said to have died in his sleep the day after his release. When I got home, Aafa Basit came to greet me and appreciated me for not mentioning his name when I was arrested.

He informed me of where he kept the skulls. I went to pick him on Thursday, and we had just parked the motorcycle I bought through instalment plan when the residents surrounded us, accusing us of keeping skulls in their environment.

They started beating us, though we initially denied being the ones who kept them there. One of them inflicted machete cuts on my head until Amotekun operatives arrived and rescued us from being lynched. The mob almost killed us.”

Maruf claimed that he learned how to perform rituals by reading his maternal grandfather's note about native medicine, tagged'secret to wealth'.

He said that he didn't know the source of the heads. He claimed that he bought them because he knew it as the man's trade when he was first arrested and the news went round Oyo town.

Col. Olayinka Olayanju (state Commandant, Amotekun Corps), spoke out about the arrest and said that the suspects would face trial after the investigation was over.