Initially, it was claimed that two of the suspects, Isah Mohammed (26), and Idris Mohammed (28), both residents of Sakpe village in the Edati Local Government Area, were apprehended carrying the skull during a routine patrol by a sister security agency.
The state police area command in Bida received the two suspects later for additional investigation. They disclosed the identities of three additional people who helped them exhume a body and remove the head throughout this operation.
According to DSP Wasiu Abiodun, the state police public relations officer (PRO), who confirmed the incident in Minna, the suspects were apprehended in a Mitsubishi Lancer vehicle by a sister security agency at the toll gate along Bida-Minna on September 11, 2023, in the afternoon, while the passengers were being searched.
"During police questioning, the suspects claimed that they obtained the human skull from their village and were assisted by three other individuals to the grave where the skull was exhumed," he writes.
Suleiman Usman (22), Ibrahim Jiya (18), and Abdullahi Usman (24), all of whom are from the same address, are among the additional suspects.
The three suspects were also detained, according to the police spokesman, and they confessed to having removed Ndako Daniyan's skull from his grave in Sakpe village, where he had died there three years prior.
"Two of the suspects, Isah and Abdullahi, claimed to have met Alfa Suleiman from Kwara State three weeks ago in Bida," he continued. He gave them N30,000 and directed them to go find a human skull for a money ritual before telling them to carry it to someone in Minna. When they arrived in Kpakungu, they were to call the unidentified receiver, and he would meet them there.
The five suspects have been sent to SCID Minna so that the matter can be diligently investigated and prosecuted.