CRIME: HERBALIST WHO BURIES Ex-CUSTOM OFFICER, HER DAUGHTER ALIVE, PLEADS FOR MERCY, SAYS”IT WAS DEVILS HAND WORK”, WHILE VICTIMS’ FAMILY INSISTS ON JUSTICE

The devil did it! ■ Herbalist, who buries ex-Customs officer, her daughter alive, pleads for mercy

“The God whom I serve will prove to you that I am innocent. Ange­la brought the car to my house to assist her to sell it. She left the house with her daughter to bring the documents and never returned. If you like, drag me from one police station to the oth­er, the truth will surely set me free. I repeat, I am innocent.”

That was the plea of inno­cence on the first day of the interrogation of a 65-year-old herbalist, Alhaji Olatunji Azeez, who after spending six days in police detention, confessed that he buried alive a retired Customs officer and her 10-year-old daughter in one of the rooms in his house.

Saturday Sun correspondent incidentally witnessed the short drama that played out as soon as Alhaji Olatunji, who was well dressed and had a good command of English, stepped into the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) office at the Lagos police command, Ikeja on the day of his arrest, June 19. Out of pity, she solicited that the man be set free to avoid pun­ishing an innocent man. Not deterred by the wave of emotions displayed by Olatunji, the former Lagos Police Commissioner now AIG Umaru Manko ordered that the suspect should be detained and further interrogated.

Six days after his stay in the custody of SARS, Olatunji, the supposed innocent man took police detectives to his personal house in Ire Akari Crescent, Ajuwon Akute, Ogun State where the decomposing bodies of Mrs. Angela Kerry, a 64-year-old retired Customs officer and her daughter, 10-year-old daughter, Obi­aguluman, were found in a well dug in a room inside the suspect’s house.

He confessed to have singlehandedly planned and executed the crime in the hope that his secret will be covered for life. Al­though he claimed that he committed the crime in self-defence, the late Angela’s family insists that their sister was killed over a business deal. They alleged that Alhaji Olatunji, a herbal doc­tor, has other accomplices who are still at large.

His arrest

The victims got missing on May 10 after which the family spent three weeks searching for them before eventually reporting to the po­lice on June 13. In the course of initial inves­tigations, the family realised that Angela’s car, a Honda Accord, had a tracking device. The company was contacted and the car tracked down to a car stand in Abule Egba with the aid of the police at Oko Oba police station, Agege where the incident was first reported. The car dealer told the police that it was the herbalist that brought the car to his stand to assist him to sell it. Arrested, the herbalist chose his words very well. He told detectives that the late An­gela and her daughter brought the car to his of­fice requesting that he should help her to sell it off. He insisted that he does not know the whereabouts of Angela and her daughter.

Not satisfied with the outcome of the inves­tigation, the matter was transferred to SARS for further investigation. Still confident that his story will exonerate him, Alhaji Olatunji main­tained his earlier position.

Cracked

For five days, despite all kinds of rigorous interrogations he was subjected to, Olatunji maintained that he was innocent. Not deterred by his tears and call on the almighty God to de­liver him from what he described as injustice, Head of the SARS team, Abba Kyari insisted that the suspect’s confession was not coherent, hence the need for further interrogation.

On the sixth day, he cracked. Olatunji ad­mitted that he knew where the missing Angela and her daughter were and was ready to take the police to them in Ijebu Ode. He lied again that he locked them up in a room and ran back to Lagos. Excited to end it all, detectives were detailed to travel the next day and rescue the victims dead or alive. The next day, Olatunji was reluctant to join the team of policemen shouting that he was wanted to see SP Kyari before they depart. It was then that he made up his mind to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

He allegedly confessed that he buried both mother and daughter in a room in his com­pound. Determined to get to the root of the matter, a team of policemen were dispatched to his house at Agege.

Pre-meditated murder

On getting to his house, Alhaji Olatunji re­quested that they should move over to the boys’ quarters. In one of the rooms, he pointed to a spot on the floor and asked them to dig.

“We felt he was still lying and had planned to waste our time or plan a possible escape. He kept in­sisting, it was then through a closer conserva­tion that we realised that a portion of the floor was recently plastered. We started digging and after seven feet down, we did not see anything. Everyone was angry because one would won­der how the old man managed to dig a grave deeper than six feet alone. He told us that it was a deep well. Professional diggers who assisted him to dig the well were called in.”

At about eight feet down, a travelling bag, documents, phones and clothes were recov­ered. The contents of the bag belonged to the late Angela. Few metres down, the decaying body of little Obiaguluman was found. He still insisted that they should continue digging as the body of the late Angela was still under­ground. She was later found decaying mixed with water and sand.

Investigation revealed that Olatunji hired the services of professional well diggers. He asked them to dig a well in his room, and also insisted that the sand be kept closer to the well. He thereafter spread a mat and white cloth on the well to cover the trap.

On the day of the incident, May 10, he lured the woman to the spot for prayers. It was then that she fell into the trap alongside her daugh­ter. He started filling up the well with the sand that was already in the compound. After pouring several buckets, he realised that the girl was still on the surface. He picked heavy blocks and threw into the well till the girl who was struggling to step out of the well breathed her last. He continued till the well was filled up before he invited a bricklayer who sealed off the spot for him. He quickly cleaned up his house and moved the car to a dealer to assist him to sell.

He claimed that he singlehandedly execut­ed the crime, exonerating all those fingered by Angela’s family and friends.

Case against accomplices

Police investigations revealed that Alhaji Olatunji was determined to silence Angela forever and as such prepared a trap to bury her alive. He only contracted the services of a bricklayer and professional well diggers. The professional well diggers claimed that they were surprised when he asked them to dig a well in a room.

“He contracted us on May 3, 2014 to dig a well for him. We were surprised that he wanted to dig a well inside a room. He only told us that water from a well is more hy­gienic than water from the borehole. It took us three days to complete the job and we were paid N30,000 as agreed,” Jide one of the pro­fessional well diggers, said.

Also, the bricklayer, identified as Fatai, in his statement at the police, said that he was in­vited by Alhaji on May 18, 2014 to seal off a hole in one of his rooms. “He told me that a part in his boys’ quarters was broken. He gave me a bag of cement to do the job which I finished in a space of two hours. He paid N2000 and even asked me to go with the remaining cement. He has been my customer for years and everyone knows him as a gentle trado medical dealer.”

The man, Azeez Olatunji

Going down memory lane, Alhaji Olatunji, aged 65, claims that he hails from Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State. With a good command of English, Olatunji said that he had to stop his education at secondary level be­cause of financial constraint. “I attended Oke Ibadan Boys’ High school after the Biafra war ended. We were lucky because the war did not get to the west. My father was a military man and he later retired and went into trading be­fore he died. After my secondary education, I travelled to Lagos from Ibadan in 1970. I start­ed as a bakery man and later saw a vacancy at a Nigerian hotel at that time called Bristol hotel. Since I knew a bit about bakery, they employed me where I rose through the ranks and ended up as a manager of the hotel located at Martins street in 1982. I was forced to retire when the hotel management decided to close it up.

“Meanwhile, on a part-time basis, I was practising how to become a trado medical doc­tor. It was more of general healing. I decided to go into full-time trado medicine known as Garden of Success, Natural Health Centre, I was very successful. Then I was at Maroko in Lekki that time, after they destroyed the place, we vacated the place and moved over to Abule Ado. My business grew and most of my cus­tomers were women who were either looking for children, husbands and money. I also had men as my customers mostly those who were looking for favour and money. I was also as­sisting churches and mosques with holy water that can be used to increase their population. I was so successful and by the grace of God, my business boomed,” Olatunji narrated.

He said he travelled to Mecca in 1982, which explains why he is addressed as Alhaji. “I was a member of the Ogboni fraternity but I had to denounce them when I travelled to Mecca. I only retained some of the deities like the god of iron which is part of the source of my power.”

Meeting Angela

According to Olatunji, Angela was one of the numerous women that had faith in him and the potency of his medicine. “She was brought to my clinic by her friend who I assisted in the past. This was six years ago. She was very sick then. She had a spiritual attack also known as ofa in Yoruba. It is sent by evil people, in form of an evil arrow. Her body will turn black and will be itching her ceaselessly. People are very wicked.

“Then she had retired from the Customs service. I tried my best and God answered her prayer. She was very excited and decided to make me her spiritual father. She started pa­tronizing me, even if it was common headache. I was also the one who gave her herbs that cured her fibroid completely.”

He claimed that it was her unquenchable de­sire for a biological child that led to her death. “She was never married and does not have children but along the line, she adopted a girl. This did not satisfy her quest for a child.

“Four years after we met, she came to me saying she has been unable to bear children. She said that other places she had been told that she can still have children. She was more than 60 years then. I told her that if she had come when she was 50 it would have been easy. I tried to convince her but she insisted that her instincts told her that I am the one that will make her pastors’ prophecy to come to pass.

Around May last year, she started a serious complaint, saying she has spent money on this. I told her that since she has adopted a child that she shouldn’t worry about it. Two months later she came and said her pastor said if she puts effort into it, she will have children. I asked why she is bent on doing that since she is not married. She said she has boyfriends. That she wants her boy­friends to be responsible for the child. She said she had already spent N15 million on it.”

Shocked that Angela could spend up to N15million searching for a child, Alhaji Olatunji decided to exploit the golden op­portunity. “I knew at that moment that she will spend anything to get her desire and if I do not benefit from this moment, another man will collect the same money from her. I then told her that it will cost her about N10 million to make her wish come through.The following week she came with N1.7 mil­lion. She paid the money gradually. I started my job. She said she has faith in me.

She told me she saw her menstruation. She was around 63 as she said. I told her to wait for the second one and try to meet her man af­ter. She said some of her boyfriends were in London. So, she invited one of them. When he came she told me he has arrived. The man came and left and she wasn’t still preg­nant. Around April this year, she came. She said she wanted to tell me something. She said she wanted to stop taking the medicine. That time, she had already paid N9 million. I encouraged her to continue for another two years since she has faith in me.”

Gospel according to Al­haji Olatunji

Disappointed that his medicine had failed her, Alhaji Olatunji claimed that Angela de­manded a refund. “She said she didn’t want to continue. She said she wanted her money back. I told her it’s not possible. She started threatening that she will come. She said she will be back with full force. I thought she was joking. We have never quarrelled. I was alarmed because I suspected that other trado medical doctors that she has been visiting could have bewitched her. She came again with her daughter to collect her money and threatened me. I was frightened by the way she was talking. I knew that as a Custom officer, she has a gun. I thought I should let her go to the police. She threatened she would report me. So, I let her go that day. Three days later, she came the same way with her daughter.

“That day, I had to go to my house and gave her N2.5 million. She said by the next day, she will come and she did. She asked for the balance and I told her that she should leave me alone that I have other cases. She warned she will come in two days’ time and that when she does, it would be hell. So, I thought about it and prepared for her. That’s when the evil thought that landed me here came.”

Lamenting, Olatunji said that he had not had any issue with the police before. “I wanted to report to the police but I knew that if I mentioned about the N6 million left I will be in trouble. I knew it was impos­sible for me to use a knife or gun to kill a human being created by God. She arrived as promised ranting and threatening hell. I went behind and covered that well with a mat and white cloth. I prayed to God to calm her down so that she will obey me. I came back to the living room and pleaded again that I will surely give her the money the next day. God heard my prayer and she calmed down. I told her to join me and pray at the backyard. She loves praying, so it was very easy to persuade her.

“I asked her to kneel down on the white cloth… She drew the child, I asked her to leave the child behind. I moved the child back. Before I could stop her she had al­ready moved the girl with her and they knelt on the mat. Then I heard her shout ‘yeeee’as she fell into the deep well. She was scream­ing, and I had to move quickly and started packing sand into the well. It was getting late as at that time. I was able to pour in 50 buckets and was tired and terrified.

I rushed to the mosque to pray and ask God for for­giveness. When I returned, I discovered that the girl was already on the surface of the sand. There was no way she could climb out because the well was still very deep. I had to silence her or she will tell the world what I did. I threw in heavy blocks till she became silent. I kept pouring sand till the well was filled up. The following day I called some labourers to seal off the place. I had to go to Jankara to see if I can sell the car,” Alhaji Olatunji narrated.

He lamented that what he saw at the SARS detention for those six days made him to open up. “In the cell, I met all kinds of hardened criminals who were already re­pentant. They shared their testimonies with me, and advised that the only way God can ensure that I will live again is if I confess to the crime. I realised that my days will be longer here if they were not found. I would have been released at Oko Oba police sta­tion, if not that the family insisted that the case should be transferred to SARS. I felt that since there was no witness to the crime, I will be treated as an innocent man.”

Plea for mercy

He blamed evil spirits sent by his ene­mies as the ones responsible for his ordeal. “I want the family to forgive me. If you see my heart, you will understand. I couldn’t even sleep in the house. This kind of thing has never happened to me before. If you ask anybody around there who I am, they will tell you. My job is to heal. It’s the devil. I didn’t do it with my normal mind.

“She saw me as her spiritual father. I also assisted her to sell her house at Omole which we did at the cost of N74 million. She later bought a house at Agege at the price of N8million and also spent about N9 million. Initially, it was bought in my name because she never trusted her family members; she said she wanted to travel to America with her daughter.

The lady, Angela

Her immediate elder brother, Dr Mike Idida Kerry told Saturday Sun that the late Angela was very close to him till her current lifestyle drove her away from the family. “She is my younger sister and was born in 1948. She is currently 66 years. We are from Abonina in Rivers State. We grew up in the North, then my mother was working at the Local Authority Hospital, Gusau. This was where they were born. After the war, we came down to Enugu till we finally returned to Rivers State.

“It was after the war that she enrolled into Customs and rose to the rank of Chief Superintendent of Customs. She retired in 2004, having served the nation for 35 years. She had several relationships that almost re­sulted in a marriage but never did. She had several miscarriages till I was told that she adopted a child.

“As soon as we buried our mother 13 years ago, she started staying away from her siblings. I was not comfortable with her lifestyle and that caused a friction between us. In fact, I have not seen her in person again till I was called that she was missing. She started visiting different herbalists in the name of getting protection and eleva­tion while at Customs. It appears that those who are in uniformed organisations result in fetish acts in search of protection and elevation. She was even struck with an ill­ness and was brought home to Rivers State where she was finally cured,” Dr Kerry who is based in Rivers State, narrated.

They silenced her over a business deal, family in­sists

Dr Kerry said that he finds it hard to be­lieve that his sister did all the things that the herbalist said. “It is his word against hers and my sister is not here to defend herself. However, I gathered that Alhaji Olatunji, one Lizzy and one other Babatunde were involved in an oil block deal that did not turn out well. Part of the deal was that they will build a house for her at Banana Island. It was all fraud, they ended up killing her. The Angela that I knew was not desperate about having children. The only thing that happened was that the herbal doctors that she had faith in hypnotized her and she for­got her family.”

On the allegation that her family wanted her dead to inherit her wealth, Dr Kerry said: “If the family wanted her dead, why did they not kill her soon after she left the Customs in 2004. They knew that if she was close to her family, it will not be easy to ex­tort money from her. She is my blood sister and was close to me. When I heard that she was missing, I thought she had travelled out without anyone’s knowledge, I never knew she was buried alive all this while.

“If he was sincere, why did he buy a property for her in his name? The so-called house is a wretched place located by the canal. It will be sold and the money shared among her niece and nephews. I do not know why Alhaji Olatunji has decided to accept the blame alone. I guess that they took an oath not to disclose one another be­cause I am very sure that there was a con­spiracy.

“I am a lecturer; I got my Ph.D in 1986. I taught in the same college of education with President Goodluck Jonathan. I do not need her property because I have a far better life than she did. I am an associate professor at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology. Our main concern is how to bury her in the shortest possible time as the cost of keeping her in a morgue has doubled. They liquidated her resources before killing her and the little girl.”

Also, when informed that Olatunji wants the family to forgive him; Dr Kerry advised that he should ask God for forgiveness.

“God has also said that he who lives by the sword will die by the sword. I have no issue with him; he has to face the wrath of the law guiding the society.”

Collaborating her uncle’s claim, Ange­la’s niece (names withheld) insists that one Lizzy, Babatunde Bristol hired Alhaji Ola­tunji to hypnotize their late sister. She also alleged that there was an oil deal which her aunty invested heavily in.

“I pray that the police would further in­vestigate the matter and invite the others who are still at large”, she added.