I Was Paid N1,500 To Supply Human Fingers, Says Teenager

Sixteen-year-old scavenger, Lawali Abubakar, has said that he was promised N5,000 and given a part payment of N1,500 to exhume a corpse from a cemetery in Chachanga, Niger State and supply its fingers.

Lawali said he went to the cemetery with his friend named Salisu, who is currently at large, to exhume the corpse but luck ran out on them as they were caught by a policeman who was passing by the cemetery on a motorcycle.

Unable to give an adequate explanation on why they were digging a grave in the cemetery at night, the policeman held the both of them but Salisu managed to escape.

Lawali admitted that it was not the first time he would engage in such activities as he had previously delivered human parts to the receiver, who he identified as Oga Hamisu.

Lawali said: “A man sent us to work for him. He said that while we were scavenging, we should should get four fingers from a corpse at the cemetery and he would pay us N5,000.

“When we got to the cemetery, we got him what he demanded and he gave us the money.

“He came again and told us that when we got to Tunga Goro, we should go to the cemetery and bring the eyes, private parts and clothes of a dead body.

“He said that he would give me N1,500 and give Salisu N1,500 also. So we went to the cemetery at Tungan Goro, but a policeman came on a bike and asked us what we were doing there.

“We told him that we were easing ourselves, but he was not convinced by our explanation. He asked whether we did not know that we were in a cemetery.

“That was how he held us, but Salisu escaped.”

Lawali also recalled that they had undertaken a similar mission in Bosso, another community in Niger State. But he said he did not know the residence of Hamisu who they were working for.

Parading the suspect, the Public Relations Officer of the Niger State Police Command, Abiodun Wasiu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said that Lawali confessed to having embarked on the crime because of the N5,000 promised to him and his friend Salisu.

Wasiu said: “The suspect was arrested at Chanchaga cemetery when he attempted to exhume a corpse from the grave.

“During interrogation, he confessed to have conspired with one Salisu who is presently at large to get body parts and cloth of a corpse from the cemetery at the rate of N5,000”.

Wasiu said the case was being investigated while efforts were on to apprehend the other suspects.

He said the suspect would be prosecuted on conclusion of investigation.