The Kogi State Police Command has apprehended and paraded four suspects linked to the gruesome murder of 19-year-old Damilola Olowoyo, a first-year student at Federal University Lokoja.

The main suspect, Jeremiah Paul (20), was arrested alongside accomplices Emmanuel Otitoju, Banabas Olugbenga, and Ajayi Basit Ayomide.

Jeremiah Paul, from Chikun Local Government in Kaduna State, confessed to masterminding the killing as part of a money ritual scheme initiated through a native doctor he contacted on TikTok.

Paul shockingly revealed that he befriended Damilola with the intention of using her for ritual purposes.

“I met Damilola last Sunday and we started chatting. I already had it in mind that I wanted to use her for rituals,” Paul stated.

He lured her to his home after drugging her with a mixture of codeine and Sprite. Once she became weak, he led her to an uncompleted building where he strangled her to death.

Paul explained how he was instructed by the native doctor, based in Ibadan, to remove specific body parts.

“I removed her eyes, tongue, lungs, and other parts, placed them in a calabash, and sent them back to the native doctor via a driver,” he said.

Paul said the arrangement was facilitated entirely online, with the ritualist sending back a soap purported to grant wealth after receiving the body parts.

Parading the suspects at the Police headquarters, in Lokoja, on Friday, the Police spokesperson, William Aya, stated that Paul lured the deceased into the bush and killed her for a money ritual.

The image maker disclosed how the suspects were arrested, and said there was a complaint made to the Commissioner of Police (CP), over the disappearance of Olowoyo, a student in the Department of Biological Science, Federal University Lokoja.

He said, “The Commissioner of Police swung into action and assigned the matter to the State Intelligence Department. The operatives swung into action immediately and started working on the phone of the deceased since it could not be reached. With the help of the technical unit at the force headquarters, we were able to apprehend Jeremiah Paul in connection with the case.

“The suspect actually confessed to us that on 4th of September, 2024, that he met the deceased Olowoyo and lured her to the bush. At first, he pretended that he liked her. When she accepted, he took her to an apartment. Before then, he gave the deceased a drink. Unknown to her, inside the drink, he had put some codeine.

According to him, “This worked in her system which made her weak for the suspect to carry out his heinous crime. He took the deceased to an uncompleted building before strangling her to death and dismembered her body. He removed her eyes, lungs, liver, tongue and fleshy part of her buttocks with the purpose of performing some rituals.

“Initially, he called the parents of the deceased that he had kidnapped the lady and demanded for ransom, in which he was paid, before killing the girl. He collected a ransom of N400,000 from the parents.

It said, “Further investigation also revealed that one of the suspects here was the first person that approached the girl, but because he couldn’t provide what was being demanded from him, he withdrew. The main suspect, Jeremiah Paul decided to step in. He came with his friend from Kaduna State to commit this crime.”

“You may be seeing somebody as a human being but he is not. This act that Jeremiah Paul and his gang have carried out is an inhuman act. Imagine a 20-year old boy going this far; killing an innocent lady and removing her sensitive body parts, in the name of carrying out rituals.

“It shows that in the society we are living in, people need to be very careful. I am calling on students across the various institutions to be very careful with their friends, course mates and neighbours they are mingling with. Some people will be within the school environment but they are not students.

“Some may have admission and they are in school, but they have their own aim of being there. Students should be contented with what they have. Because of little things, this girl lost her life.”

He appealed to parents and students to be conscious of people they are moving with.

He added that the command will arraign the four suspects as soon as the investigation is concluded.