Muyideen Salaam, a 35 year-old apprentice at Aketegbo community in Seme, Badagry area of Lagos, gave this chilling confession of how he killed a 13 year-old boy, Rilwan Amuda, in his crave for materialism.
The Ibadan-born suspect claimed he was tempted to opt for money ritual after his wife left with their two children when feeding became an uphill task for him.
Speaking to Vanguard, he said
“ I was alone in the video shop club
owned by my master when one of my friends named Nuru came and said he
knew someone who could make us rich . He told me all that was needed was
just the blood of a boy of about 15 years of age.
He said all I needed to do was to get
the person since he had already contacted a herbalist. In my
desperation, I told him we would take Rilawan, mama elewa’s son since I
had easy access to him because he usually ran errands for me and
sometimes I gave him money and used closthes. We felt it was useless to
go out and get someone else since Rilawan stayed in the same area with
us. I made him understand that getting someone was not the problem but
taking him to the herbalist’s shrine where he would be killed.
When we told baba our constraint, he
gave Nuru a ring and instructed us to just touch whoever we wanted to
bring with it , that the person would follow us without hesitation.
On that fateful day, I called Rilwan
and touched him with the ring . To my surprise, he became dumb and
followed us to the shrine. We kept him there until it was dark .
When it was midnight and there was no
one in sight, we took him away from the shrine and laid him on the
ground. While Nuru slashed his throat with a knife given to us by the
herbalist, I held a bowl close to his neck for the blood to pour into
it.
Rilwan did not put up any resistance as promised by baba because he was hypnotized. And his memory was gone.
After we collected the blood, we gave
the bowl to baba and carried Rilawan’s body far away from the shrine to
avoid suspicion and dumped it on the expressway so as to give an
impression that he was hit by a vehicle. We thereafter, went to bath
with the blood as instructed by baba.
He performed some rituals fore us and
mixed the blood with a black native soap and gave us to bath with after
which he said we would become rich.
But after bathing with the substance,
by the third day, we did not see any money as promised by baba. We were
as poor as we used to be . We were so angry and decided to go to baba’s
place to fight with him.But on our way, Rilwan’s mother held me and
asked me to produce his son for him. She said she was informed that he
was last seen with me. She vehemently refused to let go of my trouser
even when I denied. This caused a scene and people gathered around me
and started beating me. Nuru who was with me managed to escape.
Policemen from Seme division came and took me away. It was at that
moment I opened up.But Nuru who lured me into it is nowhere to be found .
I am left to bear the brunt alone . If I had known, I would have
continued working for my master where I was paid N1,500 every month. The
most painful aspect is that I do not have a mother, father, sister or
brother. I am just all alone in the world. I do not want to die even
though I partook in killing somebody “, he said in an emotional laden
tone.
After his arrest, policemen reportedly took him to the herbalist
shrine where the suspect showed them the bowl that was used to drain
Rilwan’s blood. The herbalist identified as Soji Akodiya did not deny
demanding for a human blood from Muyideen and his fleeing friend but he
stated that the killing never took place in his shrine.Out of curiosity , this reporter was forced to ask why he looked so haggard and tattered when he could make money to take care of himself. In response,he looked at the reporter , smiled sheepishly and said, “you will not understand”
Continuing he said :
“ Yes, I told them what they needed
for money ritual was human blood. Because money ritual is one of the
greatest tasks in our line. I told them they could either use their own
blood for it but I believe they never wanted to and brought that of the
boy. I was not around when the boy was slaughtered . I did not even know
when they brought him. He was not even killed in my shrine….”
But Muyideen interrupted saying “It
is a lie. You knew when we brought him. It was even you that gave us
knife and a bowl to put the blood. You even told us not to kill him in
your shrine for security purpose and you were aware we were going to
kill him that night”.
But the herbalist ignored the interjection and continued
“ I am a herbalist who speacialise in
attending to barren women. I also help people to get jobs and also give
charms to traders to sell more than their fellow traders. I collect,
N50 to N500 , depending on what the oracle demands. It is then left for
my clients to appreciate me. I got money ritual charm from a colleague
ten years ago when all herbalists went for a meeting in Ijebu-ode .
Usually, what we do at such meeting is to help ourselves. For instance,
if I have the cure for any disease and others do not, I will give to
them and vice visa.That was how the baba gave all of us ogun owo (money
ritual charm)and instructed us on how to administer to our clients . I
have never used it before, this is my first time. It was even when Nuru
came to me that I realised I had the charm”.
Asked why it did work for the suspect and his fleeing partner in crime, the herbalist replied
“ it did not work because they did
not follow my instruction. The instruction was to bathe with the
prepared concoction nine days after its preparation but they used it on
the third day. Had they followed the instruction, they would have
noticed a total turn around in whatever they set their hands to do .
Their businesses would have been lucrative . And if they leave N1000 in
the bag, they would wake up to meet triple of what was there”.
