A Kwara State courtroom was gripped by horror and disbelief on Wednesday as Abdulrahman Bello, an Islamic cleric, openly confessed to the brutal murder of Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal, a promising final-year student, for ritual purposes. The startling revelation came during a tense session at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, presided over by Justice Hannah Olushola Ajayi.
In a damning video recording submitted as evidence by the prosecution, Bello admitted that he lured and murdered the young woman to harvest her body parts for a money ritual. The video, played before a visibly shaken court, featured Bello stating that he acted alone and would not have committed the heinous crime if he had easier access to human body parts.
“If I could get human parts elsewhere, I wouldn’t have killed her,” Bello confessed without remorse in the chilling footage.
The court also heard gripping testimony from Inspector Ayodele Azeez of the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who gave a detailed account of the painstaking police investigation that led to Bello’s arrest.
“On February 14, 2025, a case of murder and rape was transferred from Oja-Oba Police Division to the State CID,” Azeez testified. “During the search of the first defendant’s residence in Olunlade, we recovered an axe, cutlass, charms, a consultation book, a blood-filled container, the victim’s slippers, and shockingly, her severed hands.”
According to Azeez, Bello voluntarily gave his statement in the presence of a police-provided legal counsel, Barrister A.O. Ahmed, after claiming he could not afford a lawyer. The confession was recorded both in writing and on video, which was later burned onto a compact disc and presented in court.
Although the defence counsel, Barrister Agbede, objected to the admissibility of the video on grounds of alleged coercion, Justice Ajayi dismissed the claim and admitted the video into evidence, ordering that it be played for the court.
Inspector Azeez further revealed that the investigation extended beyond Bello, as the police analyzed his phone records and tracked regular communications with the other defendants both before and on the day of the murder.
“All five suspects are deeply connected,” Azeez stated. “The second defendant is Bello’s spiritual teacher; the third is a student of that teacher; and the fourth and fifth are Bello’s close associates.”
As the courtroom digested the gory details and the implications of Bello’s confession, Justice Ajayi adjourned proceedings at exactly 11:32 a.m., with the trial expected to resume later in the day.
The case continues to send shockwaves across Kwara State, raising urgent concerns about ritual killings and the dark underworld of spiritual exploitation in Nigeria.
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