Man Kills Boss, Turns Her Into Pepper Soup

LAGOS -- A Nigerian man who confessed to killing his boss and making pepper soup with her body parts was arrested Wednesday, police said.

Salifu Ojo, a 23-year-old farm laborer in southwest Ondo state killed Christiana Elijah, a 40-year-old mother of four, after a dispute over his pay.

He chopped off her head, hands and legs, then removed her internal organs which he used as ingredients for his soup, police said.

"Ojo macheted the woman after they disagreed over payment," Paul Ochonu, Ondo state commissioner of police, told Reuters. "He severed her parts, made pepper soup and ate it -- all on the farm."

Ojo confessed to other laborers after the soup made him vomit, police said.

"We recovered the trunk of the woman's body and some uncooked parts on the farm," Ochonu said. He said the man would be charged to court as soon as police completed investigations.

Police arrested a suspected cannibal in Nigeria's largest city Lagos in 1998 after several cooked and uncooked human parts were found in his hideout.

The man was not prosecuted after doctors deemed him mentally unstable.

In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of more than 110 million people, many believe witchcraft involving the use of human genitals, eyes, tongues and skulls can make them instant millionaires.

Although Ojo did not kill his boss for ritual purposes, police said they suspected he might have wanted to sell some body parts to ritualists.