Ritualists disguise as labourers, kill Ondo pastor on farmland

Dada Itopa, a pastor in Ondo State, has been hacked to death by two suspected ritualists.

Itopa, 45, was reportedly killed on his farmland at Ebira camp in Ipele community of Owo Local Government Area after the suspects disguised as labourers to assist him on the farm.

It was gathered that the suspected ritualists also attacked the 30-year-old wife of the pastor, Mrs Bose Dada, with a machete on the same spot.

Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, the Ondo Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), who confirmed the incident in a statement on Monday, said the pastor had requested the service of the suspects to assist him weed off his farmland for N11,000 in workmanship.

The PPRO revealed that the suspects followed the deceased to his farm at Ipele but shortly after, one of them identified as Omatai requested a cutlass from the cleric under the pretence that he wanted to use it to work on the farm, but hacked him to death.

She, however, noted that one of the ritualists identified as Mohammed Musa had been arrested in connection with the attack while his co-suspect, Omatai was on the run.

“The wife of the cleric tried to cry for help but she was also stabbed on the head by Musa, a friend of Omatai, and she sustained a serious injury. The victim is currently in a hospital.

“In the course of the investigation, Mohammed Musa confessed that they carried out the attack because they needed to deliver a human head to a herbalist who requested it in Ipele,” she said.

The police spokesperson said an effort was ongoing to arrest the herbalist who ordered the human head, and arrest the fleeing suspect.