Suspected ritualist beheads woman in Adamawa hotel, flees with head

The Adamawa State Police Command has apprehended some suspects in connection with the beheading of a young lady, allegedly killed for ritual in one of the hotels in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, on Thursday evening.

Also apprehended are three staff members who were on duty at the time of the incident at the hotel (name withheld).

The arrest of the hotel staff, the police said, is to help in its investigations of the murder, which is strongly believed to be for ritual purposes.

A suspected ritualist had on January 18, 2024, around 9:30 p.m. taken his victim to the hotel where he was lodged as a guest, and thereafter beheaded her and left the scene with her decapitated head.

Confirming the arrest to journalists on Friday, the spokesman for the Command, SP Suleiman Yahaya Nguroje, said, “The command has so far apprehended three staff of the hotel and recovered drug and handset of the lady. The drug and handset were recovered at the scene of the crime.”

The PUNCH, however, gathered that two persons, believed to be behind the gruesome murder of the lady, have been apprehended.

The deceased has been found to be a married woman who just got separated from her husband.

Her ex-husband, Auwal Garba, on Friday, identified the remains of his estranged wife, deposited at the Specialist Hospital.

Garba, who confirmed the identity of the deceased as Bilkisu Alhaji Idi to the police, said she was his wife, whom he had married about six years ago.

“He said the union produced one child but due to some irreconcilable differences he divorced her in December, 2023.

“The deceased even called him on the day she was killed at Happy Day Guest Inn, that she wanted to talk to her child, but he informed her that the child is with his grand mother,” the police said.

The police spokesperson also assured the public of the determination of the Police Commissioner, CP Afolabi Babatola, to arrest the perpetrator of the heinous crime.