Some of the surviving victims rescued from the uncompleted building inside a forest at Soka area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, where scores of human skeleton, skulls as well as decomposing and mutilated human parts were discovered, have relived their horrifying experiences.

This is coming at a time Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, visited the evil forest and announced the confiscation of the property.

Recounting their experiences yesterday, the surviving victims said they were kidnapped from different locations within Ibadan and on the expressway.

According to 45-year-old Mrs. Titi Adeniyi, nee Dokpesi, who claimed to be related to the family of the late nationalist, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, she was kidnapped two months ago right in front of her home at Oke Bola, Ibadan.

Looking emaciated and frail, Adeniyi, who was on her hospital bed, at the Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan, stated: “I am from the compound of the late Baba Awolowo of Oke Bola in Ibadan. Some people came and rushed at me while I was sitting in front of our house. Nobody was around then. My people were in Lagos. They said I was wanted somewhere and that they came to arrest me. They then took me away in their vehicle. Later, I found myself in that forest.”

It was gathered that apart from the killings in the forest, some women victims were being impregnated and made to deliver babies, who were then sold to ritualists.

Another victim, Nofiu Shittu, a dealer in herbal medicine at Foko and Olodo areas of the city, said: “I was sitting somewhere at the Agodi Gate area of Ibadan when some people swooped on me and rushed me into a vehicle. I had been in that place since four months ago. In the forest, we were sometimes not given food for a whole week. People were dying.”

Michael Ola from Odeda in Ogun State and Wale Atoyebi, from Ada, in Osun State, were among other survivors receiving treatment at the hospital. They were too weak to talk, but Atoyebi could only mutter that he was not a mad man.

Although a lot of people have continued to throng the hospital from different locations across the country, none of the survivors has been identified by family members.

Mrs. Adeniyi however, said that her family, which was based in Lagos, was aware that she was in the hospital.

Nurses at the General Out-Patient ward of the hospital, where the victims are being treated said that the victims were improving tremendously. According to them, concerned people had been donating cloths and several items to them.

The nurses said when the victims arrived, they smelt awfully and had to be bathed thoroughly. The victims’ unkempt and bushy hairs were yet to be cut by yesterday. One of the nurses, who did not want her name in print, explained that the hospital was trying to preserve their identity so that their family members could recognise and identify them.

Meanwhile, Governor Ajimobi, while visiting the evil forest yesterday, trembled at the gory scenes. Moved by what he saw, he called for a minute’s silence and led prayers for the repose of the souls of those who were killed in the forest.

Describing the development as man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, the angry governor announced the immediate revocation of the Certificates of Occupancy (C of Os) of the expansive land and its forfeiture. He also ordered that the land be cleared.

Addressing the crowd, that had continued to throng the scene, including the Head of the community, Chief Isiaka Bello Olupoju, Governor Ajimobi explained that government was taking over the land, adding that security agencies would comb the area and determine the extent of atrocities committed there.

He promised that the perpetrators of the barbaric act would be found and prosecuted accordingly.

He stated: “We will revoke all the C of Os of the owners of the land; government is taking it over immediately. Then we will set up a panel of forensic experts; we will get to the root of the matter and find out those involved in the act. Even though we were told that the inhuman transactions here had been in existence for over 10 years, we will dig it up.”

The governor wondered why the horrendous activity held sway in the neighbourhood for over 10 years and people living in the area did not know about it or inform security agencies.

He advised Nigerians to avoid violence and all anti-social activities, while urging them to provide security agencies with useful information regarding unusual movements within the neighbourhood.

The governor promised to meet with residents of the community next month to find out their needs with a view to addressing them.

The promise was accompanied by another pledge to give unemployed youths in the area automatic employment in the State Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES-O).

•Text excerpted from Daily Sun. Photo, courtesy The Nation, shows a crowd of curious on lookers at the evil forest . . . yesterday in Ibadan.

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