The two suspected ritual killers alleged to have been found in the tunnel were burnt alive, while four others were rescued by soldiers and policemen.
Yesterday evening, the state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, along with some policemen, arrived the scene with five sniffer dogs. The area was like a Mecca as people trooped to the area to witness jungle justice being carried out on those alleged to be involved in the ritual killings.
Commercial activities were grounded in the axis while gridlock generated extended to Abule Egba area. Some residents said preliminary findings showed that the ritual killers targeted pedestrians in the early hours of the day and late at night.
These killers would drag their victims into the tunnel, where they allegedly kill them. It was further alleged that the ritual killers had been operating in the area for years. The tunnel has many entrances and ‘rooms’. During the search, it was discovered that one of the entrances, led to an uncompleted building outside.
When the building was searched, cooking stove, pots, clothes, female bras and other items were found. A resident said: “Two of the ritual killers ran out of the canal in an attempt to escape, but they were overpowered.
They were set on fire along the side of the road. A soldier brought out two others about 7.30a.m. from the den. Those two would also have been burnt, but for the determination of the soldier and some policemen who rushed to the scene.
When the police commissioner arrived, two other suspects were arrested. ” One of the residents, Femi Idowu, said: “We heard that ritual killers dragged a woman into the canal and cut off her breasts. The woman was screaming for help.
It was her shouts that attracted the attention of a sweeper. The sweeper informed some members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), who were close to the place.
When the men got there, they couldn’t access the canal. Some soldiers, attached to OP Mensa got to the scene and bravely entered the canal.
They brought out the suspects.” Another resident, Kunle, said: “The discovery of the den came as a shock to every one of us. Many of us in the estate used to pass through that bridge on a daily basis; we didn’t know that such a horrible thing was going on under that bridge.
God knows how many people had been killed there. When one of the suspects was brought out, he said they were 24 people working under the bridge. At least 16 Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards were recovered from him. The ATM cards are recent ones”.
Mr. Adebayo Tijani, another resident, said: “That was not the first time such incident would be happening in this area. We had similar incident in 2008 at Ahmaddiya Bus Stop; some people were arrested then and they claimed to have killed a lot of people and supplied their body parts to some highly placed Nigerians”.
It was learnt that it took the intervention of soldiers and policemen to stop further jungle justice.
Witnesses said that the first indication that some untoward activities might be going on underneath the bridge, which also serves as a drainage collector in the area, emerged about 7a.m. Another version of the story claimed that the street sweeper accosted a young man who crawled out from the tunnel.
She reportedly claimed that the man appeared shaky. And when he was further interrogated, he said that he would rather die than confess. Thus, he was set on fire. A carpenter, Tunde Adenipon, said: “I saw the young man when he was being interrogated. He didn’t want to talk until he was slapped.
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