The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a pastor who beheaded his girlfriend, cuts her hands, and buried the remains in a room close to the altar of his church at Papalanto, Ewekoro LGA, Ogun.
The suspect, Oluwatobiloba Ipense, is the pastor in charge of a white-garment church, the Holy Gathering Evangelical Church of God, and the victim, Raliat Sanni, a divorcee and mother of five, was a hairdresser.
Residents of the area trooped out in a large number to witness the crime scene onspection when Ogun Commissioner of Police Ahmed Iliyasu led journalists to the crime scene on Tuesday.
Iliyasu supervised the exhumation of the decapitated body of the victim.
According to him, the suspect and his accomplice, Daniel Sopeju, a prophet in another white-garment church, were arrested on March 26, 2018.
The arrest followed a report of a missing person at its divisional headquarters in Ewekoro on Monday, March 26, and the subsequent investigation by the division detectives.
“The case was reported by one Adebola Saheed that his younger sister, Raliat Sanni, left home since March 21 and had yet to return,’ said the CP.
“On the strength of the report, our operatives at the Ewekoro division, led by the Divisional Police Officer, Oluwarotimi Jeje, swung into action and embarked on technical intelligence investigation.”
Iliyasu said the suspect was arrested following an analysis of facts surrounding the disappearance of the victim, as he was the last person that had contact with her.
According to Iliyasu, the suspect was a pastor in charge of Cherubim & Seraphim, a white garment church, at the Elebute area of Ewekoro.
In the course of interrogation, the pastor confessed to killing Sanni and burying her in his church after removing her head and two hands for reasons “only known to him and God.”
Ipense also mentioned Pastor David Sopeju of Iyana Egbado as his accomplice.
The police boss disclosed that forensic investigation into the case had commenced, adding that the suspects would be charged to court.
But Ipense denied the allegation that he killed the victim, saying his accomplice, Sopeju, was responsible for her death.
He said Sopeju led seven members of a cult to his house—to initiate him.
Ipense, who claimed to be teaching Accounting and Commerce at a private secondary school at Arigbajo, said the cult had earlier asked him to submit the names of his church members from which they eventually picked Raliat’s name.
“Having mentioned her name, they asked me where she was living and I told them that she was living at Wasinmi. They later got her and brought her to my church.
“They used red cloth to cover her face and Mr Sopeju brought out a knife and beheaded the woman. After beheading her, he collected her blood and put it in seven calabashes.
“He later put her head and severed hands in a white calabash.”
He further explained that the group told him that the severed head and hands would be shared by members of the group.
When confronted with these allegations, Sopeju denied it.
He, however, admitted that they all belonged to white garment churches’ association in the area.