Police Rescue Suspected Ritualist From Mob In Akwa Ibom

But for the timely intervention of Police operatives, a father of three from Anambra State, would have been lynched by an angry mob, following the discovery of the remains of a little boy concealed in a carton in his possession.

The incident, LEADERSHIP learnt, happened at the Itam timber market area of Itu local government area of Akwa Ibom State, where some vigilant youths intercepted the man, the corpse and two children, and immediately subjected him to severe beating to extract confession from the suspect before the arrival of the Policemen.

“We suspected that something incriminating could be inside the carton, and behold when we unveiled, and to our surprise, it was the dead body of a small boy carefully wrapped and packed inside the carton,” one of the angry youths, simply identified as Udo Akpan, explained.

After being rescued, the suspect explained that he was the father of the two boys and the dead one, and that he was taking the boy’s corpse home for burial in his native Anambra State as it’s the tradition of his community not to bury any dead indigene outside.

Confirming the incident on Wednesday, the State’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Timfon John, said: “On the Itam incident, what happened is that a father of three boys was intercepted by the Police at Itam with a dead boy and two living boys.

“Upon investigation, the man told the Police that all the three boys, including the dead are his. And that in his tradition, the deceased males are not buried outside their community. So he was taking his dead son, accompanied by the other siblings to the village in Anambra State to be buried.”

According to the Police spokesperson, the Police have retrieved and deposited the dead body in the mortuary while investigations continued to ascertain the truth or otherwise of the matter.