- LAGOS (Reuters) - Three men
hoping to be millionaires were arrested in southwestern Nigeria for possessing
a human skull that they planned to use in money-making rituals, police
said Tuesday.
-
- ``We arrested the three suspects last week at Ota,''
a police spokesman told Reuters. ``One of them was in possession of a fresh
human skull, which he said he bought for 500 naira ($4.50).''
-
- The skull was to be used in witchcraft which the suspects
believed would make them instant millionaires, the police said.
-
- ``The ritualist who allegedly sold the human skull is
now at large,'' the spokesman said.
-
- Ritual killing is common in some parts of Africa's most
populous country, where people believe witchcraft involving the use of
vital human organs such as genitals, eyes, tongues and skulls can make
their fortunes.
-
- In July, a teenage girl confessed to taking part in the
ritual killing of 48 people in the last seven years after being initiated
into a secret cult.
-
- The 13-year-old told police in the northeastern city
of Maiduguri that the body parts of victims, who included a two-year-old
boy, were usually removed and sent to the cult headquarters in Nigeria's
commercial center of Lagos.
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