Forensic Experts Begin Probe In The Forest Of Horror, Soka, Ibadan

 

A team of experts from the University College Hospital, Ibadan, and Nigeria Police from Abuja began examining the Soka “forest of horror”, where dying men and women were rescued and decomposing bodies and human parts were found.

The police team of pathologists and the police team of the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrived at the site about 11 am on April 7, 2014, Monday.

According to Police spokesperson, Olabisi Ilobanafor, they were there to exhume the bones of victims buried at the site for forensic analysis to help investigation into the activities in the forest.
She said DNA tests would be conducted to enable investigators match results and determine if the missing persons were killed in the “forest of horror”.

“People whose family members or relatives have been declared missing are free to go for DNA test or forensic test to establish if they are related to the bones found there.
“The reason for the investigation is to get to the root of the matter, to assist the police in ensuring that evidence are not lost and that the investigation is done scientifically and diligently”.

She said the site would be handed over to the government after the investigation.
Men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) were at the site.
The police debunked the rumours that a hidden dungeon exists in the forest, and some people still remain trapped in it:

“There is no dungeon here. It is not true. Nobody is trapped,” the officer said.

Some of the items collected by the experts were clothes, mats, plates, bottles, metals and any other physical things seen in the den.
Men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) were at the site.
Hordes of Lunatics
Over 50 suspected ‘mentally-ill’ persons were apprehended by the police, following the attack on mentally-ill people by Ibadan residents on the suspicion that they were ritualists.
The ‘mentally-ill’ persons were apprehended by mobs on the allegation that human parts and incriminating items were found on them.
The police confirmed the development, added that the suspects had been handed over to the government for psychiatric tests to determine their health status.
As concerns those who possessed incriminating objects or suspected human parts, they would be prosecuted after the psychiatric test.
It would be recalled that the horrible place was discovered on March 22, 2014, at the Soka area in Ibadan, Oyo State, after a group of local youths embarked on a search of two missing cyclists.