Man to Hang for Muti Murder
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Lagos—A Nigerian court sentenced a man to death by hanging on Thursday for killing a friend to sell the body parts for ritual puposes, court officials said on Thursday.
Justice Felicia Dusu of Jos High Court in central Nigerian Plateau State convicted 35-year-old Jacob Wakfan of murder after he confessed to luring the friend, Jurbi Danjuma, into the bush and stabbing him to death.
After the crime in April 2000, Wakfan removed Danjuma’s private parts and tongue, the judge said.
“The convict’s desire to make quick money led him to commit this heinous and treacherous act,” she said.
Ritual killings are rampant in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country of 130 million people, where belief in witchcraft is widespread.
Last week, police in the southwestern city of Ibadan found three headless and limbless bodies in apparent ritual-linked murders.
(Posted on March 18, 2005)