An unbridled desire to become rich overnight at whatever costs, which plunged a 62-year old herbalist to attempt killing his apprentice for money ritual, has been uncovered by the police in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria.
The herbalist, Ganiyu Idowu, Crimepuzzle gathered, resolved to presenting the apprentice, Ganiyu Akanni, 32, who was barely two-month old with him, as an alternative to their initial target, one Baba Yenu, as frantic efforts to abduct him failed.
And since all arrangements had been concluded to ensure that the ritual, for which they needed to spill human blood did not fail, Idowu and his two other accomplices, including a Moslem cleric, through persuasion, lured Akanni, the apprentice, out.
While embarking on the devilish and heinous journey of taking Akanni to the “golgotha”, the trio of Ganiyu Idowu, Alfa Bamigbola Edun, 62 and Matthew Odunewu, 53, orchestrators of the planned wicked act, had a polythene bag each on them, with which they planned to take their respective shares of Akanni’s body parts after killing.
Apparently filled with the euphoria of a perceived unhindered operation, the suspects, currently in police net, took their victim to Ogun river bank at Oriyanrin in Abeokuta and asked him to dig a certain portion of the ground.
Still unsuspicious of the men’s motive and the attendant lurking danger, Akanni stooped to do as directed. Before he knew what was happening the suspects pinned him down, and were about slaughtering when policemen on siege at scene shot into the air.
This singular action of the operatives sent them scampering but could not go far before they were arrested.
Parading the suspects before press men at the state police headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta, the state capital this afternoon, CP Ahmed Iliyasu said, “Following an intelligence report received about the activities of some ritualists, who were planning to kill their victim for ritual at Oriyanrin area of Abeokuta, the DPO of Adigbe Division, whose jurisdiction the incident was about to occur, was directed to work hand in hand with FSARS operatives in order to save the life of the innocent victim and bring the culprits to justice.
“In compliance with my my directive, operatives from the two formations embarked on 24-hours surveillance surveillance of the area. Their efforts paid off on August 30, 2018 at about 11:00pm when four men were sighted coming to the river bank with three of them holding polythene bags.
“On getting to the river bank, the three men grabbed the fourth person who was the youngest of them, laid him on the ground and were about to slaughter him like a sacrificial ram when the operatives swooped on them and got them arrested.
“On interrogation, they confessed that the polythene bags with them were to be used to collect their respective shares of the victim’s body parts after killing him”, the CP said.