‘How I fooled rich men who wanted to get richer’

Akeem and Ogunsina

A fake herbalist has revealed how he cleverly fooled different rich and greedy men who wanted to get richer. The suspect, Jimoh Akeem, did not only fool them by presenting a live, dancing snake, he also promised he could change fake dollars into genuine ones and make charms that could protect people against gunshots.
He said he was shocked when he discovered that most people who fell for the ruse were already rich folks.
Akeem, married to two wives and a father of two, confessed to have built a house and bought two cars; a Murano Jeep and Altima car, just fooling and playing rich, greedy folks. He said: “Yes, I’ve built a house in Iwo Road, Ibadan. I have two cars. I tell lies and always promise to make rich, greed people richer. I used fake dollars to deceive them. I stole the fake dollars from a man who asked me to change it for him. That was how I started using it.”
Investigators discovered that in the course of his fraudulent activities, Akeem uses live snakes to convince victims that he was genuine.
 He smiled: ‘’I caught the snake from the farm when it was nothing but a baby worm.
Today, it had grown to adult snake. I removed the teeth when it was small and trained it.” Akeem and his partner, Akinropo Ogunsina were initially arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command for armed robbery, but it was soon discovered that they were hardened fraudsters. According to Akeem and Ogunsina, they had made tons of money just pretending to prepare charms for people, especially rich guys, against gunshots. 
Ogunsina said: “In 2010, I met Jimoh Akeem. He was a 419 herbalist. We used to deceive people and collect money from them. We made a lot of money from people who wanted medicine for protection against gunshots. We also deceived people that we could change fake dollars to genuine ones.”
Ogunsina was the first to be arrested at Oshogbo, Osun State, where he fled to after escaping from his home in Ikorodu, Lagos. He had earlier evaded arrest in Ikorodu by escaping through the roof top when police stormed his residence. A police source said: “Investigation revealed that the suspects belonged to a three-man gang of robbers. They are also involved in advanced fee fraud, known as 419.
One of the gang members, Sunday Daniel is on the run now.” The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Kenneth Nwosu confirmed the arrest of the duo. Nwosu said: “Ogunsina had once being arrested in 2013 for armed robbery. He was charged to court and released in 2014. It was through him that the police arrested Akeem in Osun State. One locally made gun was recovered in Akeem’s house.”
Ogunsina said he used to drive tractor and forklift for Super Engineering Company in Ikorodu, a Chinese company, but left when he realised most workers who had industrial accidents were never compensated.
He used his pay off money to buy a motorbike and started plying Ikorodu axis. He then met Sunday Daniel in Agbara area and his life changed. Daniel convinced him to be going with him to cut open people’s window net and rob them at nights.
They mostly concentrated on stealing phones and money from homes they were able to gain entry into. Ogunsina said: “We stole phones, jewellery, laptops and money. I’ve gone out with Sunday for robbery up to six times.
We operated in Egbeda and Agbara. We used to go out for operations around 12am. I was arrested in 2013 and charged to court. I was later released on bail.” He had also gone to Lokoja to work with a gang headed by an Alhaji.
He, however, left and returned to Lagos after he had a misunderstanding with his boss over a lady. He recalled: “In one of the robberies we carried out in Lokoja, we made millions. My share was over a million naira and more. I used my share to buy a Honda car. We robbed a particular rich guy. We were four that carried out that operation.”
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