The decomposed body of a nine-year-old boy has been recovered in the Gudum Hausawa area of Bauchi, the Bauchi State capital.
Northern City News learnt that the body of the boy, Hassan Mohammed, was recovered last Wednesday between a burial ground and the Government Primary School in the Gudum Hausawa area.
It was said that the brain, two eyes, two hands, two legs and the private parts of the boy had been removed.
A member of a local vigilance group in the area, who spoke to Northern City News in confidence, said the boy might have been used for rituals.
“From the way we saw the body, we suspect that he had been dead for over four days or even more.
“We suspect the boy was used for ritual purposes considering the fact that vital body organs of the boy were removed,” he said.
He said that some children who were playing around the area saw the decomposed body and it was reported to the local chief who, in turn, informed the police and the body was recovered.
The source told our correspondent that the boy who hawked fried soya bean cake was said to have been lured by an elderly man.
He said the man who is the prime suspect bought the cake from the boy and lured the boy to where he was killed.
“That was the last that was known or seen of the boy. People in the area saw the small boy following him and crying that he should pay his money.
“So, after about four days that the body was found, the parents were called to go to the Township Police station to see if it was their son whom they had reported missing,” he added.
When our correspondent visited the family of the deceased, the father and some other people were seen receiving sympathisers who were trooping in to commiserate with them.
The father of the boy, Usman Fari, 65, narrated how the incident happened, noting that the boy was declared missing 24 hours after he failed to return home.
“My son was sent out that fateful day to hawk fried soy bean cake and a man bought N20 worth of bean cake from him. After he finished eating, he stood up to go without paying the boy.
“My son followed him and demanded his money but the man did not pay him. He followed him from this area up to a distance of about 2 kilometres but the man still refused to pay. From there, nobody knew what happened to him,” he stated.
Fari said more than five people saw the boy following the man who grew up in the same community.
He said he reported the next day at the Township Police Station that his son, Hassan, a primary three pupil, the fifth of 12 children, was missing.
But after some days, the police called that they had recovered a body.
“Immediately, we identified the body; it was my son. It was then we told the police who we suspected and they began searching for him. He was arrested after three days,” he stated.
Fari said he was heartbroken, particularly after seeing the mutilated remains of his son.
“They removed his two legs, two hands, and his head. They broke the back of his head and removed his brain. After they did that, they took his head back to where his body was and carefully joined it to the body with his trouser.
“My heart is bitter but when such things happen to a person and he trusts God, he gets relieved. This thing came from God because he destined it to happen the way it did,” the bereaved father said.
He called on those who engage in such heinous crimes to desist “because they should know that they will also die one day and get the reward of whatever they did while alive.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Bauchi State Command, Kamal Abubabakar, confirmed the incident.
He said two suspects – the alleged perpetrator and the sponsor had been arrested.
He said, “We arrested the prime suspect and his sponsor. They were arrested by the Township Division and have been transferred to the state CID for investigation.”