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.”
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