A large number of residents of Mowe, between Lagos and Ogun, nearly lynched a middle-aged man on Thursday after he was allegedly caught with a human skull and other body parts.

It was said that some residents accosted the man with the body parts, after a driver raised the alarm.

Findings by the reporter showed that the decomposed body parts were that of the owner of a plot of land in the Arigbawonwo community.

The man was buried on the land by his family members, who later sold the land.

The new land owner, however, exhumed the body. The suspect was reportedly contracted by the deceased family to help them to relocate the body.

A community leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said:
“The parts were that of the first owner of the land, who had been buried for about 10 years in the land. When the land was resold, the new buyer just exhumed the body and threw it somewhere.

“The suspect was contracted to pack and re-bury the remains. He put them in a sack and got a cab to convey him to where he intended to dispose them of.

“The suspicious cab driver raised the alarm, stopping abruptly on the way. Residents and passersby opened the sack and found the remains.

“They pounced on him because they thought he was a ritual killer. He was about to be lynched when the policemen rescued him.”

A relative of the suspect was sighted talking with the Divisional Police Officer.

When asked why the suspects didn’t involve the police in the disposal of the corpse, the relative said that the suspect never thought that the matter would assume any crisis proportion.

“He is my brother. The family of the deceased contracted us to dispose of the body. But they didn’t say we needed police clearance,” he added.

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi confirmed the incident.

He said, “He has been transferred to the Anti-kidnaping and Anti-cultism Section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Eleweran.

“However, he claimed in his statement that the corpse was that of a relation and he was going to re-bury it when he was caught. He is being investigated.”