Men of the Zone 2 Command, Lagos have arrested a 35-year-old suspected fake Prophetess, Folake Olasode and her accomplice, Damilola Aboloyinjo, 31.
The Police charged the suspects before a Lagos Magistrates’ Court for allegedly defrauding a housewife, Sarah Umeh to the tune of N8m under a false pretence of spiritual healing and protection
Police said she collected the N8m from the complainant at various times with the pretext of using the money to prepare charms for her in a calabash to protect her spiritually and her three children from untimely death, a claim the Police said the defendants knew to be false.
Police said that Damilola Aboloyinjo who is a friend of the complainant is the one who allegedly convinced the complainant and lured her to meet Olasode for the fake spiritual exercise knowing full well that their spiritual claims were false.
Police further alleged that to convince the complainant that they were effective spiritually, Olasode allegedly prepared charms inside a calabash for the complainant and gave them to her to bury inside her residence.
This, she claimed, was to ward off evil spirits. She also allegedly inscribed incisions on her body and her three children’s bodies with razor blades and took them to the river to bathe.
Police alleged that nemesis, however, caught up with the defendants when the complainant later realized that the defendants were defrauding her following a tip-off.
She petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG in charge of Zone 2 Command, Lagos, AIG Durosimi Olatoye who directed his men to fish out the defendants and the Police arrested the defendants at their temple unknown to them that the complainant had been tipped off.
The defendants were charged before the Igbosere Magistrates’ Court sitting at the Tinubu Magistrates’ Court, Lagos Island, Lagos on a five-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, stealing, trial by ordeal and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.
Police prosecuting Counsel, ASP Francis Igbinosa informed the Court in the charge Marked M/23/2024 that the defendants committed the offence in May 2024 at 7A, Jide Agbalaya Street, Chevy-View, Lekki, Lagos.
Igbinosa told the Court that Aboloyinjo who happened to be a friend of the complainant lured the complainant to meet the fake Prophet, Olasode for the fake spiritual healing and succeeded in duping her of the N8m before they were arrested.
He said the offences the defendants committed were punishable under sections 411,314, 287,172 and 168(d) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and Magistrate, Mrs Gbajumo Ayoku granted them N750,000 bail each with two sureties each in like sum.
Ayoku adjourned the case till 14 October 2024 for mention and ordered that the defendants be detained at the Kirikiri correctional facility, Apapa, Lagos pending the perfection of the bail conditions.
