{"id":175781,"date":"2025-08-23T21:05:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T20:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears"},"modified":"2025-08-23T22:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T21:22:14","slug":"headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears","title":{"rendered":"Headless Body of Teenager Sparks Ritual Killing Fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Following the gruesome murder of an 18-year-old boy, suspected to be the victim of a ritual killing, along the swampy stretch of the Calabar River, behind the Cross River Basin Authority at Ikot Effanga, Calabar Municipality, fear and panic have seized the hearts of Calabar residents.<\/p>\n<p>The deceased, identified as Daniel Ekanem, said to be a native of Ikot Offiong in Odukpani LGA and resident of Lemna community in Calabar Municipality, was reportedly last seen on August 14, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>His decomposing body was, however, discovered five days later, on August 19, during a frantic search mounted by his family.<\/p>\n<p>When the remains were found, his head had been severed from the body, raising strong suspicion of ritual murder.<\/p>\n<p>Family members told journalists that Daniel had gone to harvest vegetables in the swamp before he went missing.<\/p>\n<p>His headless corpse, later found in the same area, has not only devastated the community but also sparked renewed fears of ritual killings in Calabar.<\/p>\n<p>Commercial and farming activities in the swamps have since been grounded as a result of the fears, as farmers and residents fear for their own safety.<\/p>\n<p>The Commissioner of Police, CP Rashid Afegbua, has confirmed the murder, describing the killing as tragic. He commiserated with the victim\u2019s family, assuring that investigations were ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>He promised that \u201cjustice will be served.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He disclosed that tactical units of the Command, including the Dragon Squad and the Ikot Omin Division, have been deployed to pursue credible leads.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, leaders of Ikot Effanga and neighboring Ikot Enebong communities, where the corpse was discovered, have pledged full cooperation with security operatives to unravel those behind what many now fear may be the latest case of ritual killing in the state.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Following the gruesome murder of an 18-year-old boy, suspected to be the victim of a ritual killing, along the swampy stretch of the Calabar River, behind the Cross River Basin Authority at Ikot Effanga, Calabar Municipality, fear and panic have seized the hearts of Calabar residents. The deceased, identified as Daniel Ekanem, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":175780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[3706,254,6640],"class_list":["post-175781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-calabar","tag-nigeria","tag-ritual-killings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Headless Body of Teenager Sparks Ritual Killing Fears - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Following the gruesome murder of an 18-year-old boy, suspected to be the victim of a ritual killing, along the swampy st ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Headless Body of Teenager Sparks Ritual Killing Fears\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following the gruesome murder of an 18-year-old boy, suspected to be the victim of a ritual killing, along the swampy st ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-23T20:05:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-23T21:22:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755971687.253395.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Headless Body of Teenager Sparks Ritual Killing Fears\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-23T20:05:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-23T21:22:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears\"},\"wordCount\":304,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755971687.253395.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"calabar\",\"Nigeria\",\"ritual killings\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/headless-body-of-teenager-sparks-ritual-killing-fears\",\"name\":\"Headless Body of Teenager Sparks Ritual Killing Fears - 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