Olowofokunbi, 33, said he was happy as a clearing agent, working at Apapa Wharf. His smug lifestyle took a bad turn after he fell into the unscrupulous hands of some fraudsters. He said that the fraudsters milked him N700,000. When he realised he had been duped, he became embittered. Fuming, he jettisoned clearing and forwarding work and embraced fraud. Olowofokunbi’s fraud was unique. He chose to be a fake herbalist.
He would later be arrested for duping one Lekan Omisore, a banker, who has a music studio. One of Omisore’s dreams, according to Olowofokunbi, was to be owner of the biggest music studio in Nigeria. The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni said that the suspect was arrested on May 26, 2016.
He described Olowofokunbi as a member of an Advanced Free Fraud Syndicate with operational base at Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State. Owoseni said: “The syndicate parades the streets of Lagos under the guise of being herbal medicine dealers, to defraud unsuspecting members of the public. In one of their escapades, the gang defrauded one Lekan Omisore of the sum of four million, five hundred thousand naira.” Olowofokunbi, who belonged to a sixman- gang of fraudsters, said they duped Omisore only N2.5m not N4m as the CP alleged. After sharing the loot, Olowofokunbi smiled home with N500, 000. Olowofokunbi, a divorcee, said he had been posing as a genuine herbalist since 2010.
According to him, it was under that guise he had been surviving. He said he wouldn’t have become a fraudster if not because he was defrauded. His words: “I was a clearing and forwarding agent until I was duped. The fraudsters picked me at Brewery, Ijora Badia, area. I was a passenger in their car. They showed me dollars and told me that it needed a Quran to wash it. I was duped at Apapa in 2010. I was duped with fake dollars.
They collected my money. They duped me N700, 000. They disappeared with my money. I decided to become a fake herbalist. I joined another gang of fraudsters.” Trying to keep up with his image of being an herbalist, Olowofokunbi started selling herbs inside a garage.
It was inside the garage that Omisore saw him and approached him. Omisore initially said he wanted to buy herbs, but later asked Olowofokunbi if his father knew how to do money ritual. Although Olowofokunbi insisted that Omisore was his first victim, police said his victims were many. Olowofokunbi said: “I sell herbs at a garage. That was where he met me. As I was selling the herbs to him, he asked me if my father could do money ritual for customers. I said yes my father used to do money ritual.
He said he has a music studio; he wanted the music studio to expand. I took him to Ijebu. I took him to our members and they collected N2.5m from him.
He knew he had been duped after months of the preparation and he didn’t get rich. He brought police to arrest me.” Asked the concoction prepared for the suspect to deceive him, Olowofokunbi said it was just a mere soap. They prepared soap for Omisore and asked to go home and watch; he would soon get rich.
But the soap didn’t work. Olowofokunbi said that he knew that in most money ritual, herbalists used to demand for human beings to be used as sacrifices, but he refused to play that card because he knew he was just a fake.
He said: “He said he needed money, so that people would hear his name in Nigeria. I didn’t tell him to bring human being for the ritual because I’m just a fake herbalist. One day, he called me; he said he had become a little bit rich. He said he wanted to see me, so as to discuss with me. I told him to come and meet me at Ijebu. He came with police.https://newtelegraphonline.com/dont-demand-human-money-ritual-fake-herbalist/
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