The Lagos State Police Command on Wednesday said it has launched investigation into the death of a four-year-old child who was slaughtered inside a shrine at the Iwaya area of the state.
The toddler was found dead at midnight, 12 hours after she was declared missing by her parents, who on noticing her disappearance had put together a search team.
According to the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Suleiman Taiwo, their daughter and two of her siblings had gone to the mosque by 1 p.m. to pray as they were used to do.
Although her siblings returned home after the prayers, the little girl was nowhere to be found, prompting the parents to raise an alarm.
Her corpse was later found at midnight at the shrine behind the house by the search team with her neck slaughtered.
The distraught parents had bundled the corpse to the Sabo police station where they met the divisional police officer on duty, thus, beginning a series of investigations and arrests.
Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said arrests have been made and 10 persons presently in police custody.
He said, "The DPO Sabo alerted me that one Suleiman Taiwo and wife came to the station with the dead body of their four-year-old daughter.
"Upon questioning, they said the deceased with her two siblings went to pray at the mosque by 1pm and wasn't seen since then.
"It was in the course of the search that they found the deceased by a shrine where Ogun is worshipped near their house. Her throat was slashed.
"We have seen the murderer’s knife when we got there by 4am. We have arrested 10 persons and they are in our custody for interrogation. We are not saying they killed the child but there is a kind of conspiracy in the matter.
"We will question all of them. The area is densely populated. Seems like these days, people have thrown their morals into the dustbin because I don't know what a four-year-old child has done to be murdered.
"The shrine has been in that chomping for a long time and if it's not a conspiracy of silence, then the occupants must have known that human sacrifices are made in that shrine because this is not the first time such has happened."
In another development, one Ahmed Adeleke, allegedly attacked 17-year-old Deborah Olaniyan with a grinding stone inside Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Orioke, Irapada Parish, Agbowa in Ikorodu.
Also confirming this, Owoseni said items recovered include one grinding stone, a blood stained white garment and handkerchiefs in white, red and blue colours.
He said, "Although the suspect claimed to be a member of the church, investigations revealed that he was of the Islamic faith and not a Christian."
Meanwhile, he said the command also in implementation of its crime prevention strategies arrested seven persons suspected to be cultists in Agbowa and Obalende area of the state with tools of violence.
"One UTC axe and a cutlass were recovered from them. The command once again appeals to members of the public to desist from taking laws into their hands as anyone caught will be made to face the full wrath of the law," he stated.
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