He used to be a famous herbalist, whom
some people, both far and near, ran to for help at his shrine at No. 8,
Oloti area in Iragbiji, Osun State, since he took over from his father
in 2006.
But at the moment, 37-year-old Asimiyu
Agboola, known as Alhaji, is cooling off in the custody of
the police in
Osun State for being the brains behind the killing of the Managing
Director of Todays Prints, Olalekan Ogunranti, 45, who was kidnapped on
May 16, 2016 in the state.
Ogunranti’s family had alerted the
police when they lost contact with him on May 16 when he travelled to
Osogbo on a business trip. They said an unknown person picked his call
and claimed to have picked the SIM card on the floor at Iragbiji. Thus,
they informed the Osun State police command and the Lagos State
Investigation Bureau.
A police source told journalists that
the Inspector-General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team moved in on
the matter after weeks of “fruitless search” for the deceased, which
led to the arrest of Alhaji and four other suspects, including Adesina
Muyideen, 27, Ramoni Afolabi, 37, Akeem Akorede, aka Jaruf, 32, and
Coker Daniel, 28.
In his exhaustive confession to
reporters, Alhaji pointed out that Ogunranti was his client before his
death but that he duped the deceased of about N3m, thus, he had to send
his boys to kill him to prevent him from spilling out the beans.
Alhaji, seen as an expert in the cure of
diabetes and fibroid, said the deceased was brought to his office
sometime in March by two of his customers, Ramoni and Akorede, for help,
which he rendered.
He began, “Five days after they
mentioned him to me, they came with Ogunranti and after listening to
him. I gave him a bill of N90,000 and gave him drugs and he left.
“Normally, we assess customer’s
financial status before giving them bill. So I asked him to pay that
amount because the people that brought him said he was rich. I removed
N20,000, which is the real cost of the drugs, and shared the balance of
N70,000 into two.”
Perhaps that was the beginning of their
business relationship. Alhaji, who is married with children, recalled
that 20 days after their first meeting, Ogunranti called back and
sounded excited, because the drug he gave him worked and that his
situation had improved.
“He requested to come and see me again
and I said no problem,” Alhaji continued, “As soon as he came, he was so
excited and promised to bring more customers. After the discussion, he
said he wanted something that would make him rich. I told the people who
brought him and they suggested that he must be a good victim to extort.
So, I had to play along.
“I told them that I could do it, and
that there were two categories of money ritual. The first was to get
money and put it in a bag after some important rituals, and the money
would multiply. The second would be to construct a big box and keep it
in a room. After several days of prayer, he would be picking money from
the box endlessly.
Alhaji said Ogunranti chose the first
option; the one that had to do with the bag, because he said he did not
have a place to hide the box. Then, he gave him the needed instructions.
“Two weeks later, he called that he had
gathered N2.5m. I took the money and put ordinary paper and other stuffs
in the bag and tied it up. I warned him not to open the bag until he
was instructed to do so. I told him to return in four days with the bag.
I told him that he was to bathe in a river which could be very close to
where he was living. I gave him options and he chose Ijebu area. I also
told him to come with N500,000 to buy more ingredients for the
rituals.”
Notably, Ogunranti complained to his
herbalist that he wouldn’t be able to afford to give out more money
because he didn’t have money again. Alhaji assured his client that his
money was on the way as they would soon conclude the preparation.
He continued, “I told him not to worry,
and that he would soon be rich because what remained was not much. I
told him to go back to Lagos that as soon as I got signal from the gods,
he would open the bag. After 10 days, he called back, threatening to
involve the government. He said he would arrest us. Then, I knew it was
time to shut him up, so I called Akorede and Afolabi and we agreed to
shut him up.”
That was how Ogunranti’s journey to the
bottom began. Alhaji told journalists that he invited the deceased to
come with N150,000 and a goat for the final sacrifice and that he would
be able to use the money the moment they finished the sacrifice.
Unknown to the former MD, his herbalist
had already initiated plans to eliminate him, as he had alerted and paid
two cultists, Daniel and Biggie, to do the job, having helped them in
the past.
“I did some incantations for them to
become powerful when they were in school,” he said, adding that “I
contracted them to eliminate the man. They suggested that he should be
lured to a remote place where they would ambush him and kill him. “I
gave them N120,000 to do the job.
“I knew the fastest way was to lure him
to a river to bathe. So, we selected a river in Obokun in Osun State and
I asked Olalekan (Ogunranti) to go the river and bathe as part of the
final ritual. We assigned a motorcycle rider to take him to the location
that we chose, while we were hiding in the bush at a distance.”
Meanwhile, Alhaji had instructed his
client not to look back while having his bath and that if he did, the
charm would no longer work. Painfully, that was his end.
“Ogunranti removed his cloths and
started bathing when Biggie and Coker attacked him. They came to tell us
they had killed him and cut off his head. I asked them where the head
was and they said they had thrown it away,” he explained.
After the incident, Alhaji said his
informant in the police told him the police were looking for him, thus,
he had to run. He left his office and stayed in a hotel where he and his
driver, Adesina, were later arrested by the police.
He however blamed the economic situation
in the country for his action, saying his patronage had dropped because
of the poor economy. “I’m a legitimate herbal doctor. It’s just that
the situation of the country is very bad. People do not have money to
buy drugs again, that is why I decided to take advantage of the
situation to make money. It was when he requested for money ritual that I
knew that he would be an easy prey,” he concluded.
In his own confession, Coker, son of a
pastor, who hails from Auchi in Edo State and a graduate of Ondo State
University, said he took to crime since he could not get a job after his
National Youth Service Corps programme in 2011.
A statement by the Force Public
Relations Officer, Don Awunah, said the suspects were arrested in Lagos
and Ondo States respectively, while one of them, Coker Daniel, who is a
32-year-old graduate, led IRT operatives to Ibukun River in Ibukun local
government area of Osun State where the mutilated body of the late
Ogunranti was recovered. He said the body had been deposited at the
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.
The statement added, “All suspects
confessed they kidnapped, killed and mutilated the body of the late
Olalekan Ogunranti to stop him from disturbing them over the huge sums
of money they duped the deceased.
“They led the police to a bush near a
river where his headless body was found. It was also discovered that his
manhood were cut off. Investigation is ongoing to fish out the
remaining suspects who are still at large.”
Punch
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