PHOTO: Businessman Sells House, 5 Cars To Raise N25m Headache Cure

A businessman, Oladimeji Isiaka , has gone bankrupt after losing about N 25m to suspected fraudsters who defrauded him under the pretext of curing his headache .

PUNCH Metro learnt that Isiaka , who lived in the Sango Ota area of Ogun State , sold his house and five cars to raise the money .

However , after realising that he had been defrauded , he reportedly petitioned the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan , Lagos State.

Investigations by operatives of the command led to the arrest of five members of the syndicate at their base in Ibadan , Oyo State.

They are Alasela Ottun ; Yetunde Mustapha, aka Iya Aje Funfun; Ibrahim Jimoh , aka
Olobe Aye; Akeem Alabi and Oyegbile Lateef.

A police source said Isiaka was an in - law of Ottun and had sought his counsel sometime in October 2016 when he had the headache, which defied medications.

The source explained that 45-year - old Ottun , after defrauding the victim of a few millions of naira , passed him to Mustapha, who pretended to be a white witch with answers to all his problems .

Mustapha, 32 , was said to have colluded with her boyfriend , Jimoh , who arranged a scheme through which millions of naira were collected from the victim .

The source said , “ The man was into oil business . He called Alasela (Ottun ) , for help . The in- law called Yetunde (Mustapha ) to pray for him .

From there, she passed information about his case to her boyfriend and they started demanding money from him to cure his headache, which they said was a spiritual attack.

“ They eventually collected N 25m from him . The man sold all his property , including five vehicles and a building. He also lost his business and became bankrupt .

When they knew that the game was up , they threatened to kill him if he told anyone . The man wrote a petition , which the police followed up , and they were arrested. ”

Ottun , an indigene of Iwo , Osun State, said he collected only N 180 , 000 from Isiaka , adding that he called Mustapha to pray for him on the telephone without knowing that she had stored his number for ulterior motives.

He said , “The man is my wife ’ s brother. He knew I was into herbal medicine and he called me for solution to his headache. I did some medicine for him , which didn’ t work , so I called Yetunde ( Mustapha) to pray for him on the telephone .

“ I never knew she had stored his number. I suspected something was wrong after I didn’ t hear from my in - law for about three months . I also went to Yetunde ’ s house , but she had packed out. I never knew she had given the number to her boyfriend and they had been collecting money from him . ”

Mustapaha said she pretended to be a white witch whenever she spoke with Isiaka , adding that she wore white costume at Ottun ’ s shrine .

She said , “ Alasela (Ottun ) and I had been defrauding the man for some time . He was the one that asked me to store the man ’ s number on my phone .

“ Soon , I met Jimoh and we fell in love. He took me to his shrine and said he was an herbalist . I told him about the man and I gave him his number. I don’ t know how they took the money from him . But they gave me N 50, 000 . ”

Jimoh , an indigene of Ibadan , Oyo State , said he had an agreement with Mustapha to share the money realised from the victim , adding that he collected N 8 m from Isiaka .

He said , “ When I met her , I told her that I was an herbalist and she told me about the deal . I asked her to give me the job , promising to share the money with her . She assured me that there would be no problem because the man was Alasela ’ s in- law.

“ We asked him what he wanted and he said he needed money to start his own company . We promised to help him and he paid us N 8 m . The money was for him to be rich . ”

The chief herbalist , Alabi , 39 , said his duty whenever the gang brought a job was to “ prosecute it . ”

He said , “I am the chief herbalist . Whenever they bring a job , I prosecute it . It is whatever the people seek that we use to defraud them . Some talk about business boom , some about making money or moving to a higher level in life . We make some fake concoctions and collect their money . ”

Lateef explained that Isiaka had been cured of the headache, but he craved wealth , adding that it was his greed that the gang exploited.

The 27- year - old Ikirun , Osun State indigene , explained that the victim was shown a sack filled with fake dollars, adding that he was asked to bring N 8 m for the preparation of rituals that would enable him to spend the money.
Lateef said he was paid N 900 , 000 from the money .

He said , “ I always stood outside as the Ifa errand boy . The man said we should help him to become rich and we showed him fake dollars in a sack . He first brought N 5 m and later added N3m . He was not allowed to touch the money.

Whoever is looking for cheap things will run into heavy losses . He thought we cured him of his headache, not knowing it was God . We just took advantage of that to defraud him . ”

The Zone 2 Police Public Relations Officer , SP Dolapo Badmos , said the suspects would be arraigned at the end of investigations.

“We recovered charms , fake currencies and fetish objects from their shrines . The Assistant Inspector - General of Police , Adamu Ibrahim , has ordered that they should be arraigned in court, ” she said.