Man who ripped out friend's heart for ritual says regrets not started making money yet

? Tony

18 hours ago

...says native doctor used the heart to prepare beans porridge for them

By Esther Onyegbula, Opadiran Doyin, Okpala Amaka & Ofulue Onyedi

LAGOS—A middle-aged man, identified as Daniel, who connived with two of his colleagues to kill and rip out the heart of one of their friends, Isaiah James, for ritual purpose said his only regret is that they had not started making money from the ritual before their arrest

?Daniel murder suspect

According to Daniel, who was arrested in Ajah area of Lagos and is being interrogated at the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIID, Panti, Yaba, alongside three others, "I do regret killing my friend.

"I didn't feel anything while I was removing his heart. Killing a human being is the same thing as an animal. My regret is that we did not succeed in making money before we were arrested."

'We were interested in 419'

Recounting the incident that led to them killing their friend and taking his heart, Daniel said: "We are from Chibok in Maiduguri, Borno State. Audu, Ayuba and I conspired and killed our friend, Isaiah James, for ritual purposes.

"It was not our initial plan to do so. We wanted to do charms to excel in advance fee fraud, known as 419, but the native doctor we consulted told us that he won't do charms for us with regards 419.

"We asked why and he told us that we are not educated. He told us that we should be literate before we can do 419 successfully. We asked if there was an alternative and he said he would perform a ritual out of sympathy for us.

"He told us to provide a human heart. That was the beginning of our problems. When the herbalist told us to bring a human heart, we told him to help us organise it. He promised to do so and charged us N100,000. We paid him N60,000 and promised to balance the N40,000.

"However, trouble started few days later when the native doctor called us to say that one of his boys who he sent on the mission for the human heart was shot in the hand by vigilante group members.

"He said he won't be able to provide us with the heart and asked us to provide it ourselves."

Killing a cousin

On how they got the victim, he said: "At this point we became confused on our next plan of action, until the gang leader, Audu, suggested that he would lure his cousin, who is also my friend, to where they would kill him and pluck out his heart for the ritual.

"We called him on phone and told him to meet us at a drinking joint in Ajah, Lagos. He agreed to meet us. He did not suspect foul play and was comfortable with us. We met at night and we started drinking local gin until the wee hours.

"We bought him fried yam and at about 1a.m., we said we should go home. As we were walking home, Audu, who was armed with a knife, said he was going to urinate."

Harvesting

He continued: "The four of us, including our target, went to a corner to urinate.

"It was at that point that we all attacked him, pulled him down and hit him with hard objects, while Audu stabbed him. When we noticed that he was dying, Ayuba butchered him and searched inside, but could not find the heart. I collected the knife from him and put my hand inside.

"I found the heart. His heart was still beating and pumping blood, when I pulled it out with the help of the knife.

"We took it to the native doctor at Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

"He used it to prepare beans for us and promised that after eating the beans porridge, we would start making big money.

"He said anything we laid our hands on must prosper and requested for the N40,000 balance, which we paid him. We had just finished the meal when the Police came to pick me.

"It was a lady, who saw us the night we killed Isaiah, that told his people she saw us in company of Isaiah.

"When the Police came to me, I confessed. Unfortunately, the native doctor escaped before Police could apprehend him."