Spiritual Problems: Herbalist dupes two sisters of N5.4m to exorcise ‘marine spirit’

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They only paid me N800,000, says suspect

In their desperate search for solutions to their spiritual problems, two siblings, Oluwaseun Ibrahim and her elder sister Rukayat, have fallen victim to an alleged fraudster parading himself as a marabout and herbalist.

The two sisters allegedly defrauded by the suspect, AbdulSalami Lawal Yakub a.k.a. Garri, to the tune of N5.4 million are currently battling to recover the princely sum from the herbalist who is now in the custody of the Ogun State Police Command.

Rukayat, a soft drink distributor, explained that her younger sister, Oluwaseun, was always losing her children shortly after they were born. So, when she lost another child last year, she relocated to their elder sister’s home in Sango-Ota while a woman of her acquaintance introduced her to the herbalist.

Rukayat explained that her sister’s predicament led her to the herbalist, following which she too began to patronise the man.

Rukayat said: “My younger sister, Oluwaseun, was losing her children shortly after they were born. Each time she was delivered of a new baby, the baby would die exactly the same time as the others before it.

“So, she was tired of losing her children and gladly accepted to patronise the herbalist when an acquaintance named Omoh introduced her to him.

“Each time we sought spiritual help, we were told that my sister had marine spirit and that we should appease her spiritual group called egbe in Yoruba, which required carrying out certain sacrifices by invoking the spirit of her group for periodic appeasement.

“She relocated to the home of our sister in Sango-Ota where she met a lady called Omoh, who later became her acquaintance. My sister was fond of giving Omoh money because she was benevolent.

“One day, Omoh told my sister that the herbalist had revealed something to her about Oluwaseun’s plight and had asked her to bring Oluwaseun to his shrine for a remedy to her problem.

“When Oluwaseun visited the man’s house, the herbalist confirmed that he actually had a revelation and had revealed what he saw about her to Omoh. He reiterated that invoking the spirit of Oluwaseun’s group through some sacrifices was the solution to her problems.

“Unknown to us, it was Omoh that actually gave the herbalist the details of my sister’s problems.

“He demanded the sum of N350, 000 for special sacrifices he boasted would stop the death of Oluwaseun’s children. My sister called her husband on the phone immediately and he transferred the sum of N250,000 to the herbalist and paid the balance a few days later.

“After the sum of N350,000 was paid to the herbalist, he demanded an additional sum of N500,000 to complete the sacrifices and my sister’s husband again paid him the amount.

“On the day the sacrifices were made at his residence last December, he placed a pot on my sister’s head, made some marks on her body with white substances, and poured a lot of fruits on the floor.

“While the sacrifices were on, one of the initiates he brought told me that I should do the same sacrifices for my children too if I didn’t want to lose a child.

“The herbalist too later told me on the phone that my daughter needed the sacrifices so that I would not lose her, because she was possessed. Hence, I transferred the sum of N350,000 to him and added N180,000 to the amount when he demanded additional money, making the initial sum N530,000.”

Rukayat recalled that not long after, Yakub added a twist to the matter when he told her that she needed to do some sacrifices to regain her stolen glory.

She said: “Five days after the sacrifices were performed for my sister, he (Yakub) invited me to his home and said that when I accompanied my sister to the place where the sacrifices were performed, it was revealed to him that my glory had been snatched by unidentified persons in my family.

“So, I visited him in company with my husband. And while we were in his home, he took me to the back of the building and brought out from a pile of ashes something that looked like a fruit with cowries attached to it, saying that the substance was the glory that was stolen from me by my ancestral enemies.

“He gave the substance to me and I showed it to my husband. He (Yakub) instructed me to take it home, use it to pray for seven days and return it to him.

“When I returned the item, he placed it before a deity known in Yoruba as Osanyin in Yoruba, called my name and declared that I had truly taken back my glory from my enemies and that I should thank my stars that I succeeded in taking it back.

“Moments later, he said that the ‘deity’ had revealed that a wicked ‘spirit’ warned that he had acted inappropriately by helping me to retrieve my glory after it accepted from him sacrifices to save my younger sister, Oluwaseun, from her problems.

“He said the wicked spirit had vowed to punish me and my child for attempting to be set free from our problems. He said that his ‘deity’ said we would make sacrifices to prevent calamity and a number of items were mentioned by the so-called deity, which the herbalist said were expensive and could only be found in the northern parts of the country.

“He then called a man he claimed was the supplier of one of the items, iru esin olokun (horsetail of the river goddess), four of which he said were required by the deity.

“The man he called on the phone said that each of the items would cost us N500,000, which meant I would have to pay N2 million for the four pieces.

“He then said the item he called ‘my glory’ would first be returned to my body before the sacrifice to save me and my child from being killed by the strange spirit would be carried out.

“That very moment, he gave me some powdery black substance which he asked me to take with eko (corn pudding), and I noticed that I could not resist paying him another money after taking the substance with corn pudding.

“The following day, he started harassing me for the money again and even visited me at home, urging me to look for money to perform the sacrifice. I didn’t know what came over me when I rushed to the bank and withdrew the sum of N2 million which I took to him in a bag.

“The third day, he brought a clay pot to my house and instructed me to pray and curse the spirit that was threatening to kill me and my child for seven days. He said that I should return the pot to him after the prayers.

“Surprisingly, while I was taking the pot back to him, a young man mistakenly collided with me and broke the pot at the Oshodi motor park in Lagos.

“I packed the pieces of the pot and gave it to him when I got to his house by nightfall and he said he would have slapped me if I were his sister for being so careless with the pot to the extent that it was smashed into pieces by a stranger. He said the pot was meant to be returned to the spirit that was threatening to kill me and my child in a forest.

“He took me and my sister, Oluwaseun, on a motorbike to a farmland around 9 pm and claimed to be invoking the spirit he called Arigiji, and we were terrified by a strange noise accompanying the coming of the spirit and the movement of a black snake-like object.

“We made to run away, but he asked us to be calm, boasting that he possessed the power to control spirits.

“The spirit, which looked like a midget, emerged with a burst of fire and said that it had threatened to kill me for daring to retrieve my glory that was in its custody.

“The herbalist pleaded that our lives be spared, but the spirit said he would only spare our lives if we provided the items we had previously purchased because we broke the pot that was given to us. Thus I coughed out another N2 million and other cash payments, making the total amount he collected from me and my sister N5.4 million.

“I have all the details of the money I collected for him from the bank. There was a time he even took me to a PoS operator after demanding some money from me. The PoS operator has confirmed the transaction to detectives.”

The scales, however, finally fell off the eyes of the two sisters and they realised that they had been scammed by the herbalist.

According to Rukayat, it turned out that a piece of white cloth containing an unknown substance Yakub gave to Oluwaseun to put underneath her pillow at home, which he claimed would neutralise the evil around her, was actually stuffed with red sand and sawdust. Thus, the two sisters reported Yakub to the police via a petition.

How video exposed herbalist

Unknown to Yakub, Rukayat was recording the scenes where the sacrifices were performed on her sister.

In the footage sighted by our correspondent, Yakub, swathed by unidentified persons who appeared in white dresses like traditionalists, led others to pour effusive incantations on Oluwaseun who was seated on the mat inside an uncompleted building.

“The said Omoh is the herbalist’s informant. We cannot say that all the sacrifices worked, because the whole thing happened in the last three or four months now and my sister has not had another baby.

“I have the video of the scenes where the sacrifices were performed for my sister, Oluwaseun, and Yakub who claims to be an Alfa (Muslim cleric) now chanted incantations. He is a scammer,” Rukayat added.

Explaining his complicity in the matter, Yakub, a native of Akungba-Akoko in Ondo State, who described himself as a marabout, said he was only trying to help the two sisters solve their spiritual problems.

He said: “Oluwaseun came to me seeking a solution to the loss of her children two weeks after they were born. She told me that she had been told by some persons the remedy to her problem was appeasing spirit children and she sought my assistance on that.

“I explained to her that only Osun river priestesses could do what she asked me to do and I contacted river priestesses to carry out the sacrifices.

“She also said that she could hardly sleep and that the cause of her sleeplessness was a marine spirit that had not been exorcised.

“I was given a list of items for the sacrifices by the Osun river devotees and I showed her the list. They asked me to get the items for them and transferred the sum of N800,000 to me in bits.

“Oluwaseun later confirmed to me on the telephone that the sacrifices worked and that she could sleep well. She even visited me and bought a lot of beverages and groceries for my children to appreciate me for helping her out. We held the sacrifices like a party in front of my house.

“Shortly after that time, her senior sister contacted me that she wanted similar sacrifices performed on her child, who she claimed was constantly crying from her sleep and that she had been told that the sacrifices I did for her sister were also the solution to the child’s problem.

“She too confirmed that her child’s problem has since been neutralised.

”What they are not saying is that they wanted to take over my huge cocoa farm which they sighted one day when they visited me.

“I told her that the cocoa farm was worth over N4 million and that I cannot give the farm away because I had promised to give the proceeds from the sale of the cocoa to my wife.

“She later complained that one of her female colleagues was snatching her customers and urged me to do medicine for her that would finish the woman, but I refused. She then threatened to deal with me for refusing to help her take out the woman.

“The next thing was that she brought some thugs to my house, and my wife and I escaped through the back door to report the matter to the police. She later invited policemen to arrest me.

“This is a great lesson for me because my wife had warned me against my relationship with Rukayat and Oluwaseun.

“Since I was born, I have not seen or touched the sum of N4.5 million. And I wonder why they are lying because all the money they paid to me was not more than N800,000.

“However, I could not deny that they did not pay me the sum of N4.5 million because of the brutality meted out to me while in police custody.

“Even one of my brothers who came to secure my bail was also detained by the police and they even threatened to arrest my son who is studying in one of the tertiary institutions in the state. Hence, I admitted to collecting over N4 million from the two ladies.

“I have asked that one of my landed properties be sold so that I can raise money to refund the two ladies. I had expected that the land would have been sold and my brother would bring the money for me today so that I can subsequently sign an undertaking on how to pay the balance of the amount I collected from the ladies.

“I am pleading for mercy (from the police) now. I want them to allow me learn a lesson that one should not claim or handle matters that one lacks the competence to handle. I am pleading for mercy from the police and the two women.”

Rukayat, however, countered Yakub on the claims he made about is cocoa farm, saying: “What is my business with his cocoa farm? He is only lying. I have a thriving business as a soft drink distributor and I supply drinks to people in Ghana, where my customers reside.

“I am not poor and couldn’t have attempted to covet his cocoa farm. I did not also ask him to deal with any of my colleagues, because I have no competitors.”

Police spokesman, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the suspected fraudster, identified as Abdul Salami Yakub, was arrested in April following a petition forwarded to the Commissioner of Police by one Rukayat Ibrahim that the suspect defrauded her and her younger sister, Oluwaseun Ibrahim, to the tune of N5.475 million. (The Nation: Excluding headline)