undergoing investigations after his 17-year-old girlfriend
said she was nearly killed for money rituals.
The victim, Ruth Alabi, a Senior Secondary School (SSS) 2
student, was said to have narrowly escaped being used for
money ritual after the boy friend lured her to one Oladimeji
Babatunde Ajala, a 37-year-old herbalist in Olodo area of
Ibadan, the Oyo state capital before she was rescued by
vigilante men.
The Nation reports that the student who refused to reveal
the name of her school in Abuja, said she had gone to
spend the Easter holiday with her mother in Ibadan when
the incident occurred.
The boyfriend who sold building materials at the Iwo Road
area of Ibadan before his arrest, was paraded alongside
the herbalist by the Oyo state police command on Friday,
April 15.
According to Leye Oyebade, the state commissioner of
police who spoke with journalists about the incident at the
state police headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan, informed that
the pair planned to use the girl for money ritual before the
police scuffled their attempts.
“The victim’s boyfriend, Chibuike, had lured her to the
herbalist’s residence at No5, Galilee street, Olodo area of
the state for the purpose of the ritual.
“Luck, however ran out on them when their evil plan was
uncovered through their conversation which was overheard
by an eavesdropper. The suspects confessed to being
fraudsters and that they had defrauded many innocent
victims in the past,” the police chief said.
A black Nissan Altima said to be proceeds from illegal
business was recovered from the suspects, as well
as some criminal charms, one statute in the image of
Jesus, two other statutes and broken bottles spread on a
mat.
The teenager who was accompanied by her mother during
the questioning, revealed that she had been with the man
for about four months before the incident occurred.
She explained that they used to meet in a fast food outlet
before going to a hotel where they have fun.
Miss Alabi said: “But the day this incident happened,
Easter day, my boyfriend came with two of his friends and
he asked me to enter a vehicle which they brought and
they took me to a hotel where I was asked what will I
drink. I told him that I will take malt drink, but he insisted
I should take stout.
“So, I took a small bottle of stout. At a point, one of his
friends said I should come with him into a hotel room and
there he told me he wants to have sex with me. I was
uncomfortable with that, wondering how could that be. So,
I had to lie that I was in my menstrual cycle.
“After, my boyfriend said I should accompany him to
another place, but I told him its already dark, that my
mother has been calling my phone and that I will like to
return home. He continued to pester me, until he took me
to the place, and when we got to a place, he was calling
some of his friends and I was afraid because it was
already 10pm. That was all I know.”
She reportedly slumped on their way to the herbalist’s
house, a situation which attracted vigilante men who were
said to have called the police.
The young lady was reportedly rushed to a nearby hospital
in an unconscious state, before she was revived; there,
a medical examination revealed that the stout the teenager
took was laced with drugs.
The two suspects, however, denied planning to use the girl
for any ritual as was speculated.