BLIND HERBALIST DEFRAUDS 86-YR-OLD WOMAN OF N19M, SLEEPS WITH HER DAUGHTER AND GRAND DAUGHTER
By, Adedayo Fowowe
An 86-year-old woman is currently battling to retrieve N19 million from a blind herbalist who allegedly defrauded her under the pretext of healing her child and making money rituals for her.
The desperate attempt of an aged woman to prevent death from snatching her children has landed her in trouble.
The 86-year-old woman identified simply as Madam Alimot had 15 children, but they were snatched by death one after the other until she was left with only three.
When one of the remaining children was also hit by a strange illness last year, the octogenarian
The woman began a desperate search for healing.
During the process, she came across a weekly program on a popular radio station in Ogun State that touted a blind herbalist as a guy with mystical ability to heal the ill and have visions concerning people's life problems.
As a result, Madam Alimot, who lives in the Mowe region of Ogun State, paid a visit to the herbalist, Owolabi Adefemi a.k.a. Ojunu, at his home in Ogijo, another community in Ogun State, after taking down his phone number and address.
Unbeknownst to her, she had fallen right into the trap of a con artist.
Adefemi was supposed to have advised the woman that death was lurking over her home and that the only way to avoid it was to make atonement with a cow sacrifice.
The desperate woman instantly supplied the demanded cash for the sacrifice, triggering a chain reaction of subsequent requests for further money for unforeseen sacrifices that devoured a magnificent N19 million.
The mother and her children had sold two buildings by the time the scales removed from their eyes, and her daughter and granddaughter had warmed the herbalist's bed several times.
The homeless elderly widow and her children are now left to demand justice and a reimbursement of the money allegedly scammed them by the herbalist.
She stated that instead of offering her a combination to treat her daughter's ailment, the herbalist kept telling her that he could make her rich after making some sacrifice with cows and other expensive stuff.
"He said we were taking the big cow to Agbara, but we later changed it to the Mowo area of Badagry," Alimot explained.
"We were told to enter the house with our backs to the door, and when we did, we saw a well-built young man on the floor." He claimed that the cow we gave him money to purchase had grown into a man.
He urged me to pray on the body of the young man and stab him to death, but I resisted.
They photographed us, and I challenged him to photograph us at the spot as I held the knife in my hand.
"We were shown a large amount of cash in various denominations bundled in a sack.
"Babalawo Ojunu (Owolabi Adefemi) and one old man named Agbaakin, whom we met in the building, then told us that we couldn't take the money because we didn't bring the third person with us.
" We exited the store empty-handed.
"When we returned to him, he also refused to give us the money.
" Instead, he said that the money will simply appear in my residence at night.
"Later, he claimed that a king in Ile-Ife, Osun State, had summoned him over my case and that N2 million was required to appease the monarch.
"We ended up paying him N5 million on that day, but he didn't give me any charm for my sick child, and the child hasn't died, despite what he said to persuade me to sell my houses and give him the proceeds."
"I gave him the money after selling the house I had built with N9 million for N5 million.
" I also sold another residence and gave him the proceeds, which amounted to roughly N19 million.
I want to collect my money from Owolabi Adefemi a.k.a. Ojunu, and Nigerians should assist me because I no longer have a place to live.
As a result of my situation, I've developed high blood pressure, among other issues.
My medications cost N15,000, and I don't even have the money to buy them right now."
"I want to beg Nigerians to help me beg Owolabi Adefemi a.k.a. Ojunu, a herbalist, to leave us alone, because my mother is dying right now," said one of Madam Alimot's children, Bose.
"He has been stealing large sums of money from my mother, and she is now terrified."
He persuaded my mother to sell two houses and collected the profits, but he still hasn't let go of her.
"My mother was contemplating suicide, and we begged her not to do so."
"I didn't know him until my mother gave him the phone and he told me to follow her to Badagry for a certain propitiation."
"When we arrived in Badagry's Mowo area, he told us that we would need to buy a cow for N280,000 and another N38,000 to transport the cow to the location where the atonement for death would be made."
"He said that failing to do so would result in multiple deaths in our family.
"One day, he led me into a run-down house and instructed me to enter with my back to the door.
"On entering the place, I saw an old man there who asked me to pray in front of a deity, but refused.
"He took the N38,000 I had set up for transporting the cow and we were on our way.
"When we went back there, the old man I saw in the house led us to the back of the building, where we saw a well-built man lying helplessly on the floor."
I asked why the cow was not brought there but he said it was the cow that had turned into the helpless man on the floor and that it was begging not to be slaughtered for the sacrifice meant to avert my mother’s death.
“I was just laughing at his response, and I started shouting blood of Jesus Christ.
“He then gave me a knife to kill the man, saying that a picture of the scene would be taken twice.
“When I refused to take the knife from him, he shouted at my mother who was then visibly shaken when she was asked to hold the knife and pose with the ‘cow’ for a photograph, and she was photographed twice.
"He received the sum of N3.8 million.
" I obtained the funds from a variety of sources, including a neighbor and a cooperative society.
But he kept bothering me, saying I needed to come and give him the remaining N1.5 million before they revealed something I didn't understand.
Our family has been divided as other relatives assumed I was the one who collected the proceeds from the sale of one of her properties.
They had no idea that the amount collected by the herbalist included my own money.
"I recall personally transferring to her the money paid for the purchase of one of her houses, which she in turn paid to the herbalist.
"She later sold her house for N5 million and gave it to the herbalist.
"My mother now has nowhere to live.
He is unable to stay with me because my apartment is too small for both of us.
"Besides, I am a widow struggling to make ends meet because I don't live on a salary.
Adefemi cajoled her mother and persuaded her to bed after duping them out of millions of naira, according to Bose.
"He actually requested that my mother sell her home." He said that something was hidden beneath the foundation of the house and that removing the evil stuff would require the purchase of a cow for N350,000.
He said that he would personally come to my mother’s house to remove the evil item buried in the house by unknown persons. He however changed his mind and asked my mother and my aunt to come over to Badagry where the sacrifice would be carried out.
“He said the item was buried inside a big pot under the building and that he could invoke the item to come out of the ground where it was buried.
“He once asked me to come on a particular day and he took me into his office where a strange creature was humming.
He paid for my transportation when I told him I had no money to transport myself to and from his house.
“He later said that we would go to Badagry together and I told him that I had no money to transport myself there.
“He said that three strange birds costing N750,000 each would be needed to offer additional sacrifices.
“He told my mother to sell a three-bedroom bungalow in the Mowe area of Ogun State.
The building is located on a one-and-a-half plot of land.
“I did not know anything about it and did not collect from the proceeds.
The entire money was given to the herbalist.
“I lived in Ikorodu for 13 years and I did not know this herbalist called Ojunu.
My mother said that he had been hearing about the herbalist lately on the radio and how he had been handling several spiritual afflictions despite the fact that he was blind.
“At a point, he told me that if there would be a permanent solution to my mother’s sickness, he would have to have an affair with me.
“I initially turned down the proposal, but he said that there was not nothing he could do if I was not ready to date him.
I later acceded to his request and he made love to me in the hotel and in his house.
“He also said that he saw a vision and cajoled me to bring my daughter who is in her 20s to come for spiritual cleansing, and he slept with her too.
“He collected a total N19 million from my mother between December 2022 and April 2023.
“I asked my mother to tell me the purpose for selling her properties and giving the money to Baba Ojunu but she wouldn’t talk.
“Baba Ojunu later warned us against telling anyone about what transpired between my mother and him as well as my love affair with him, threatening that we would lose our lives if we did not heed his warning.
“In fact, he made me take several oaths with him and warned me of dire consequences if I told anyone about what transpired between us.
“My mother has no house to live in now and my aunt is also now indebted to his employers and others.
“Baba Ojunu had no car before we started giving him money, but along the line, he bought two cars: a Toyota Forerunner Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and a sports car with Ojunu 1 on the number plates.
“We later learnt that one of his sons took the car away and plunged it into a river.
“He bought plots of land from various persons from the money he collected from us.
“His first wife, Mama Niyi, was the one that told us that he defrauded us when he used police to arrest her son who stole his car.
“We went to his house that day to plead with him to refund the money he collected from my mother when his first wife, Mama Niyi, confronted him for arresting his son, saying ‘You arrested my son for taking a car you bought from the money you scammed Bose (me) and her mother…. you (Ojunu) are a thief.'”
Explaining his complicity in the matter, the embattled herbalist described Bose as his accomplice in the matter.
Adefemi said: “Mama came to me in September 2022 for a cure to diabetes.
We all know that diabetes has no permanent cure.
“She explained to me that she had spent all her money on seeking treatment for the illness and that she wanted to do money rituals.
“I told her that I could not do money rituals for her and that I could only invoke a spirit to fetch her money from a public vault.
I told her that she risks jail term if she is found to be the brains behind the spirit that would fetch the money for her.’’
Adefemi said that Bose actually connived with him to defraud her mother, alleging that she was paid 10 per cent on every payment made by her aged mother.
He said: “Mama Alimot paid for the production of a cabinet to save the money.
She paid me N350,000 that day and I gave her daughter Bose part of the money before taking her to a hotel where I made love to her same day.
“Bose was the one that was giving me information whenever Mama had money, and I would work on the old woman to collect more money from her.
“For example, she told me that her mother had just collected her share of the sale of a landed property running into millions of naira.
He asked me to work on her mother to collect part of the money and I did.
“Her mother even gave her N800,000 from the money to give to me.
I gave Bose her own share of the money.
“Whenever Bose was broke, she would call me and ask me for money and I usually gave her.
“My wife did not know that I slept with Bose. I gave Bose part of the money in bits like N5000 or N8,000.
“She (Bose) recently told me that her mother was sick and I asked her mother to provide a big cow that would be sacrificed to avert her death.
“She gave me money for the cow and bought a new knife as directed. I told Mama that the cow had turned into a young man and that he had to kill the young man if indeed she wanted to be free from sickness.
“Mama did not kill anybody.
I was the one that set her up just to create fear in her by photographing the scene where I asked them to kill the young man I lied was the cow.
I actually collected N350,000 three times for the cows.
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