PHOTO: Ogun Police Arrest Two ‘Witches’ For Fraud

Story by Yetunde Bamidele,

Four members of a fraud syndicate who allegedly duped a couple to a whopping sum of N14.5m have been arrested by the Ogun state police.

The Suspected Fraudsters

The suspects including ‘two witches’ are: Risikat Oriyomi, Sola Babalola; and the other suspects; Shehu Salam, and Wasiu Ajani.

The suspected fraudsters were arrsted by the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Omusorin village, Obafemi/ Owode Local Government Area.

However, the fifth suspect, who was said to be the leader of the gang, Baba Awotola, is currently on the run as he was said to have fled on sighting the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

According to Punch the couple who pleaded anonymity, were said to have fallen victims to the fraudster after one of the members, Wasiu Ajani pretended to be an Islamic Isleric, thereby revealing some of their problems which needed special prayers.

The couple said said the syndicate, pretending to avert evil away from them, collected N14.5m in three installments and used the two women, Risiqat and Sola as ‘white witches’ who claimed to offer prayers to ward off evil.

The witches, who claimed to have descended from heaven, were said to have demanded money to fly back to heaven.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, who led the police team to the fraudsters’ operational base on Tuesday, said Ajani who lured the couple, who were rice merchants, into the syndicate’s net was said to have used the name of a late popular Islamic cleric to deceive the victims.

Ikemefuna explained that Ajani,who dressed in Islamic cassock (a full-length garment worn by the clergy) and hung nine different praying rosaries on his neck, on the fateful day, was said to have approached the couple around Owode Onirin, Lagos State where he made some revelations to the couple.

He said: “The suspect also told them to buy a measure of salt and give it as alms to three beggars. “He later told the husband to buy a local egg, and used it to pray, circling it around his head three times.”

According to the commissioner, Ajani later used the egg as a bait to lure the couple to their den, where the gang began to swindle them.

Meanwhile Ajani, a native of Ilorin, Kwara State, who is physically challlenged who got the couple into the net of the syndicate in his confessional statement said: “Baba Awotola introduced me to this shady business. He was the one who gave the information about the couple. He promised me a car and a sum of N300,000, but he only gave me and Shehu N100,000 each.”

Meanwhile the ‘witches’ claimed they got N5,000 each per visitation.

Okoye, however, warned residents to be wary of fraudsters who parade themselves as clerics and urged the people to report any shady activities they noticed in their communi­ties to the police.