‘We were to get N1m for human eye’

Suspected ritual killers arrested by the Bauchi State Police Command have said their greed for N1m pushed them to rape and remove the eye of a 30-year old woman in Lukshi village of Dass Local Government Area. The victim, Zainab Mohammed, who is physically challenged and a mother of four, was returning home from a coronation on March 1, 2014, when the suspects attacked, raped and removed her eye. Speaking to journalists at the commands headquarters in Bauchi on Monday, the suspects said they were sent by one Usman Sambo, who promised to pay them N1m after delivering the eye to him. One of them, Bitrus Yakubu, 45, said, “We don’t know what he wanted to do with the eyes, but he told us that if we bring the eye to him, he will give us N1m. “It was as a result of such promise that we had to remove her eye. It was because of greed. “But when we took the eye to him, he asked us to wait until he confirmed that the eye would work for the purpose it was meant for.” The second suspect, who refused to give his name, said he removed the eye, but did not rape the victim. He said, “I know her very well, I couldn’t have raped her. Her mother and my mother came from the same area.” But Sambo, a herbalist, said he had three wives and seven children. He denied knowing anything about the incident, saying that he was a licensed herbal doctor. He said, “I did not send them to bring any eye to me. I am a licensed herbalist who gives people herbs for different diseases and illnesses. “Bitrus only came to me and told me that he had gotten a human eye and asked me if I could make a charm for him. “I then asked him what kind of charm he wanted and he said one that would enable him disappear and reappear at any time and any place, but I told him I could not make such a charm.” However, speaking to PUNCH Metro on her hospital bed at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, Mohammed said they offered to pay her before removing her eye. “I know two of them who removed my eye. “When I refused their offer, they raped me and forcefully removed my eye and tried to remove the second one, but I shouted and people came. “When they saw people coming, they left me in a pool of blood and ran into the bush,” she said.