adminCape Town — Nigerian police rescued 16 people from an underground dungeon believed to be a ritual killing site, the local newspaper Leadership reported yesterday.
The officers also discovered several decomposing bodies and body parts, hundreds of human skulls, old clothes, photographs and voter cards in the chamber located in a forest near Soka in the western state of Oyo.
Police found pools of blood in a nearby building where the captives were allegedly slaughtered and from where their body parts were sold for medicinal purposes, according to Oyo state police spokesperson Olabisi Clet-Ilobanafor.
The rescued men and women were too weak to immediately give evidence but several arrests were made, she said.
Every year, hundreds of Nigerians lose their lives to ritual killings. Their body parts are sold for large sums of money to people who believe they will become more powerful through magical potions containing human flesh and blood.
Meanwhile, public secondary schools in Nigeria’s northeast Borno state have been closed indefinitely following deadly attacks blamed on Boko Haram Islamists, teachers and parents said on Saturday.
The closure reportedly affects 85 secondary schools, catering to about 120,000 students across the troubled state, a stronghold of the militant sect waging a five year insurgency in Nigeria.
The murderous group, whose name means “Western education is sinful” in the Hausa language, has vowed to stop children attending school.
“We reported to school on Friday last week [14 March] but to our shock the principal of the school told us he had received orders from the ministry of education to close down the school indefinitely,” teacher Suleiman Gana told AFP.
“He [the principal] told us the decision affects all public secondary schools in the state and was taken as a precautionary measure to safeguard lives of teachers and students from Boko Haram attacks,” Gana said.
A Borno state official confirmed the closure of the schools, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Deadly attacks blamed on Boko Haram have intensified since the turn of the year, with about 700 killed in more than 40 attacks in 2014 according to Human Rights Watch, making it one of the bloodiest years since the insurgency began in 2009.
In the restive northeast, tens of thousands have fled for their lives, either in fear of further attacks or after militants razed their homes and businesses.
A wave of attacks on education targets, including the slaughter of boarding school students in their beds while they slept, has prompted international condemnation.
Late last month, 43 students were shot and hacked to death when suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, in nearby Yobe state.
On 14 March, Boko Haram Islamists attacked a military base in Borno state capital Maiduguri and freed dozens of insurgents from custody – after opening fire in a residential neighbourhood and razing homes according to witnesses.
Some public schools in the northern part of Borno have been closed for over two years due to fears of attacks.
The state commissioner for education had already ordered schools in Konduga, Bama, Mafa, Dikwa and Damboa towns — where Boko Haram has launched several deadly raids — to relocate their students to safer schools in Maiduguri. — AFP
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