Police nab 10 over killing of toddler in Lagos shrine

The Lagos State police command yesterday said it has arrested 10 persons in connection with the death of a four-year-old girl in a shrine at the Iwaya area of the state.

Already, an investigation has been launched into the death of the toddler who was slaughtered inside a shrine. The toddler was found dead at midnight, 12 hours after she was declared missing by her parents, who on noticing her disappearance had instigated a search.

According to the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Suleiman Taiwo, their daughter and two of her siblings had gone to the mosque by 1p.m. to pray. Although her siblings returned home after the prayers, the little girl was nowhere to be found, prompting the parents to raise an alarm.

Her body was later found at midnight at the shrine behind the house by the search party, with her neck slashed with a knife. The distraught parents then bundled the body to the Sabo Police Station where they met the divisional police officer on duty. 

Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said arrests have been made and 10 persons are 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. We have seen the knife used when we got there by 4a.m. 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 compound 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.“Although the suspect claimed to be a member of the church, investigations revealed that he was of the Islamic faith and not a Christian,” Owoseni said.