Herbalist, others dupe man N25m to cure headache

A man identified as a fake herbalist, Musiliu Alashela, has been arrested for allegedly defrauding a businessman of N25 million to cure him of severe headache.
The headache had been on for over two years.
Alashela, 45, was arrested alongside four others by the Zonal Intervention Squad of the Zone 2 Command of the Nigeria Police, Onikan, Lagos State.
Others arrested at the shrine in Ifo area of Ogun State, where they claim to heal people, are Abiola Jimoh, 29; Oyegbile Lateef, 27; Akeem Alabi, 40; and Yetunde Mustapha, the only lady among them.
The N25 million was collected from the victim over a period of time.
Alashela and his co-travellers, however, claimed to have collected only N8 million from their victim when they were paraded at the Zone 2 headquarters.
Alabi, the Baba Awo of the group, said: “When people come to the shrine for one thing or the other, we usually use different tricks to obtain money from such a person.
“We claim to heal and also do money doubling.
“We buy fake dollars from mallams in Ibadan (Oyo State) and put it in a drum and after we might have loaded the drum with stones and placed the fake dollars on it, we create the impression that we have reproduced ‘many’ money.
“We always dupe those who seek quick wealth and this my second operation.
“I only joined the gang to sustain my family members.
“I regret my action.”
Alashela said: “I was the first person to dupe the victim before other gang members joined me.
“They got the victim’s phone number through Yetunde, who usually poses as a white witch.
“She is the one who always prays for people who come to the shrine for solution.”
Ibrahim said he got the victim’s phone number from Yetunde, who is his girlfriend, and they started a different conversation on how to cure it.
He said: “When I got the victim’s phone number, we invited him to our shrine where we billed him N5 million.
“I got his number from my girlfriend’s phone and we called him that we can cure his headache.
“We invited him to our office and coincidentally the headache was cured and he said he also wants to own his own company, then we gave him the treasure laying code.
“We told him to bring N5 million in dollars and we would multiply it for him.
“We showed him our fake dollars and said its money we have doubled.”
Lateef said: “We take 500 litre drums and stuff them with different things, then we place the fake dollars on it and say its treasures we have laid for people, then ask them to bring more dollars for us to help them double too and we keep duping them like that.”
In sharing the N8 million, Lateef claimed to have received N900,000; Alabi, N1.5 million; Ibrahim, N1.5 million; and Yetunde, N50,000.
Alashela said apart from an initial N180,000 he collected directly from the victim, he did not get any other money.