A 35-year-old video shop apprentice at Aketegbo community in
Seme, Badagry area of Lagos,was arrested
by the state police for allegedly killing a 13-year-old boy, Rilwan Amuda for
money ritual.
Muyideen Salaam who gave this chilling confession of how he
killed Amuda his neighbour’s teenage son claimed he was lured into money ritual
by his friend named, Nuru (at large) who came to him and told him that he knew
someone who could make them rich and that all they needed was the blood of a
teenage boy.
He told me all that
was needed was just the blood of a boy of about 15 years of age” The
Ibadan-born suspect said. Vanguard
reports :
" He said all I needed to do was to get the person since he
had already contacted a herbalist. In my desperation, I told him we would take
Rilawan, mama elewa’s son since I had easy access to him because he usually ran
errands for me and sometimes I gave him money and used clothes.
We felt it was useless to go out and get someone else since
Rilawan stayed in the same area with us. I made him understand that getting
someone was not the problem but taking him to the herbalist’s shrine where he
would be killed.
When we told baba our
constraint, he gave Nuru a ring and instructed us to just touch whoever we
wanted to bring with it , that the person would follow us without hesitation.
On that fateful day, I called Rilwan and touched him with
the ring . To my surprise, he became dumb and followed us to the shrine. We
kept him there until it was dark .
When it was midnight and there was no one in sight, we took
him away from the shrine and laid him on the ground. While Nuru slashed his
throat with a knife given to us by the herbalist, I held a bowl close to his
neck for the blood to pour into it.
Rilwan did not put up
any resistance as promised by baba because he was hypnotized. And his memory
was gone.
After we collected the blood, we gave the bowl to baba and
carried Rilawan’s body far away from the shrine to avoid suspicion and dumped
it on the expressway so as to give an impression that he was hit by a vehicle.
We thereafter, went
to bath with the blood as instructed by baba. He performed some rituals fore us
and mixed the blood with a black native soap and gave us to bath with after
which he said we would become rich.
But after bathing
with the substance, by the third day, we did not see any money as promised by
baba. We were as poor as we used to be . We were so angry and decided to go to
baba’s place to fight with him.
But on our way,
Rilwan’s mother held me and asked me to produce his son for him. She said she
was informed that he was last seen with me.
She vehemently
refused to let go of my trouser even when I denied. This caused a scene and
people gathered around me and started beating me. Nuru who was with me managed
to escape.
Policemen from Seme division came and took me away. It was
at that moment I opened up. But Nuru who lured me into it is nowhere to be
found . I am left to bear the brunt alone .
If I had known, I
would have continued working for my master where I was paid N1,500 every month.
The most painful aspect is that I do not have a mother, father, sister or
brother. I am just all alone in the world. I do not want to die even though I
partook in killing somebody “, he said in an emotional laden tone.
After his arrest, policemen reportedly took him to the
herbalist shrine where the suspect showed them the bowl that was used to drain
Rilwan’s blood.
The herbalist
identified as Soji Akodiya did not deny demanding for a human blood from
Muyideen and his fleeing friend but he stated that the killing never took place
in his shrine.
Out of curiosity ,
this reporter was forced to ask why he looked so haggard and tattered when he
could make money to take care of himself.
In response,he looked
at the reporter , smiled sheepishly and said, “you will not understand”
Continuing he said : “ Yes, I told them what they needed for
money ritual was human blood. Because money ritual is one of the greatest tasks
in our line.
I told them they
could either use their own blood for it but I believe they never wanted to and
brought that of the boy.
I was not around when
the boy was slaughtered . I did not even know when they brought him. He was not
even killed in my shrine….
” But Muyideen interrupted saying “It is a lie. You knew
when we brought him. It was even you that gave us knife and a bowl to put the
blood.
You even told us not
to kill him in your shrine for security purpose and you were aware we were
going to kill him that night”.
But the herbalist ignored the interjection and continued “ I
am a herbalist who specialize in attending to barren women. I also help people
to get jobs and also give charms to traders to sell more than their fellow
traders. I collect, N50 to N500 , depending on what the oracle demands. It is
then left for my clients to appreciate me.
I got money ritual
charm from a colleague ten years ago when all herbalists went for a meeting in
Ijebu-ode .
Usually, what we do
at such meeting is to help ourselves. For instance, if I have the cure for any
disease and others do not, I will give to them and vice visa.
That was how the baba gave all of us ogun owo (money ritual
charm)and instructed us on how to administer to our clients . I have never used
it before, this is my first time. It was even when Nuru came to me that I
realised I had the charm”.
Asked why it did work
for the suspect and his fleeing partner in crime, the herbalist rallied “ it
did not work because they did not follow my instruction. The instruction was to
bathe with the prepared concoction nine days after its preparation but they
used it on the third day.
Had they followed the instruction, they would have noticed a
total turn around in whatever they set their hands to do . Their businesses
would have been lucrative . And if they leave N1000 in the bag, they would wake
up to meet triple of what was there”.
No comments:
Post a Comment