Leader of the Benue kidnap and ritual syndicate, Iorwuese Ikpila, on Friday disclosed that they killed and buried people because their queen mother requested for blood of 20 victims.
Kpila, a 30-year-old man equally confessed that he and his group had killed 16 people within the last three months.
Ikpila, his conspirators along with other suspected kidnap and robbery suspects were paraded on Friday by the police in Makurdi.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen at the state police command headquarters, he said his late father, a native doctor was the one who initiated him into the rituals.
He said the killing usually takes place in the compound after hypnotising the victims to make them weak.
“Anytime we lure our victims into our den, we strangulate them with a rope and drain the blood to feed to the queen mother who promised us unlimited powers and wealth.
“The mother queen requested for 20 human blood for us to achieve our quest for power. She is not an ordinary person and we don’t see her physically.
“We who are in the ritual don’t normally get involved in marketing of the items taken from the victims.
“There is one guy who gets the items and market them,” he noted.
Earlier while briefing newsmen, the police commissioner, Mukaddas M Garba, said they received information that a kidnap and robbery gang was operating within Ushongo local government area of the state.
According to him, he deployed a crack squad to the area for investigation and on September 9, 2019, at about 1630hrs, the gang leader, one Iorwuese Ikpila, and five other suspects in Mbagwaza council ward, Ushongo were arrested in connection with the case.
He revealed the suspects confessed that they were armed robbers operating within ukum, kwande, Kastina-Ala and Ushongo local government areas, who opted for kidnapping as a result of tight deployment of security operatives on the high ways.
