The Kwara State Police Command on Thursday said it arrested a suspected female ritualist who appeared to be mentally unstable in the Kulende area of Ilorin.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Ajayi Okasanmi, in a statement, said the arrest was made by men of the Kulende divisional police headquarters, Ilorin, in conjunction with members of the community.

According to Okasanmi, a man in a sports utility vehicle was sighted by the police talking to the woman, adding that he fled before operatives got to her.

He noted that a cash sum of N166,700, children uniforms and books were recovered from the woman.

The woman, according to the police spokesman, confessed that the fleeing man came to have sexual intercourse with her.

Okasanmi said, "Intelligence available to the command prompted the surveillance mounted around the area, which was the base of the suspected ritualist. She was arrested today, March 17, 2022, around 6am.

"In the process of her arrest, a man in a black SUV found with the suspect zoomed off immediately he noticed the presence of the police.

"In the course of the arrest, school uniforms, notebooks, textbooks and money of different denominations totalling N166,700 were found in her possession.

"The suspect stated that the man seen with her as of the time of the arrest came to have sex with her and to give her water."

The PPRO said efforts to arrest the fleeing man were ongoing.

He stressed that the state Commissioner of Police had ordered a discreet investigation into the matter, while also directing that the suspect be taken to a hospital to ascertain the condition of her mental health.

In another development, the Kwara State Government has called for calm over the recent kidnap of four students of Kwara origin from Bayero University, Kano, and Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State.

The four kidnapped students are AbdulRasaq Kaothar, AbdulRasaq Shakirat, Suleiman Temitope and Idris Mubarak.

The state Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulyman, who made the appeal in Ilorin, said security agents had been contacted while appropriate measures were being put in place to secure the release of the students.