The police in Kubwa arrested a herbal medicine hawker for allegedly duping a resident of N20m after hypnotising him with a portion meant to cure pile.
Sources said the suspect, identified as Tayo, and five of his accomplices, collected the money between July and December 2014.
He was arrested last Thursday after a confrontation with the victim.
A source said the suspect sold the herbal medicine to the victim, Adebayo Ibrahim, after he complained of pile sometimes in July 2014.
The City News learnt that the suspect also convinced his victim to follow him to his residence in Zuba, where he allegedly operated with his accomplices.
“When they got to the house, they recited some incantations and gave him something to drink,” the source said. “They also used razor and made some marks on his stomach and rubbed some concoction into it.”
With the concoction, the victim was hypnotised and obeyed whatever he was commanded to do, he added.
The source said that after the victim went home that day, the suspects severally asked him to deposit some money into their bank accounts between July and December 2014.
“He sold his two cars and that of his wife, as well as his house and three plots of land that he bought for some people,” the source said, adding that the victim recalled depositing a total of N20m in their bank accounts.
The source said however, the suspect became unlucky when he was seen by the victim last Thursday around Gado Nasko Way in Kubwa.
He said that when the suspect tried to escape after the victim confronted him, some good Samaritans caught him and took him to the police station.
The Kubwa Divisional Police Officer, CSP Nurudeen Sabo, confirmed the incident, saying that the suspect had confessed to the crime and identified five others whom he said were in Ekiti State, as his accomplices.
He said that the man confessed to have used part of the money in building houses in Ekiti State. The case would be transferred to the state CID for further investigation, Sabo said.
