Adeniyi Adewunmi a 43-year-old herbalist, or what you would call a witch doctor, has been arrested by police in Lagos for defrauding a businessman, Lawrence Akanbi of N190m.
The suspect and victim met in February 2016, when the businessman was looking for somebody to help him with diabetes, asthma and spiritual attacks.
Akanbi met the suspect in Ajao Estate area, Lagos. He later paid money to the herbalist with partly cash, partly bank payments.
Any time the victim asked questions or became suspicious Adeniyi would come up with a different excuse or explanation.
Adeniyi was apprehended in January 2018, when he went to the victim’s house one day to collect more money, police sources say.
“The complainant is a businessman. He met the herbalist on the road sometime in February 2016. The herbalist started collecting money from him and gave him medicines. Having paid N190m to the herbalist, he discovered that he was a fraudster. He paid in tranches of N5m, N10m, N20m, N50m and even paid part of the sum into the suspect’s account.
The suspect had come to the complainant’s house in Ajao Estate to collect more money from him when he was arrested by the police from Area D Command, Mushin.”
The investigation has been handed over to the Force Intelligence Bureau in Obalende. The suspect has been arraigned in the Igbosere Magistrate’s court on Monday.
Sergeant Friday Mameh the police prosecutor has told the court that the alleged charge contravened sections 287,314(a), 314(2) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria 2015.
The charges read “That you, Adeniyi Adewunmi, sometime in February 2016, in Ajao Estate, Oshodi, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did commit a felony, to wit: obtaining money under false pretenses.