Date: 2019-03-29

Police in Kwara state have arrested an herbalist, one Femi Emmanuel, for allegedly causing death of a 45-year-old woman, Tawakalitu Mukaila in the state.

Mukaila, a mother of two was said to have died after she took a concoction in the house of the herbalist.

The deceased a trader and resident of Ago-Oru Area of Omu-Aran was said to have been accosted by Emmanuel while hawking rice and beans in Omu-Aran market few months ago.

Emmanuel, during the encounter, reportedly told the woman that she and her family were under spiritual spell and attack which needed urgent deliverance.

It was learnt that to convince the deceased of his claims, the herbalist narrated with exact precision some past negative incident in the family of the woman who hailed from Isale-Oyo in Oyo State.

The herbalist was said to have constantly put pressure on the woman to come to his house for the deliverance but to no success.

Sources alleged that the herbalist resorted to the use of charm to order the woman to his house in Ila-Odo-Owa near Omu -Aran when he again met the woman in the same market on Thursday March 21.

The woman was said to have immediately left her wares and headed to the herbalist home along with her 17-year-old niece, identified as Azeezat, an SS1 student.

It was gathered that the deceased's husband, Mukaila, a driver who hails from Oke-ode community in Kwara state had been involved in a ghastly motor accident about four years ago which incapacitated him.

The husband, while narrating the circumstances of his wife's death said the woman was an honest, trustworthy and caring woman who had never involved herself in any indecent acts.

"She was the breadwinner of the family, trustworthy and very caring even after my accident left me incapacitated, her sudden death this way remain a mystery to me.

"On that fateful day, few months ago Tawa told me about what one Emmanuel,a spiritualist told him while hawking inside Omu-Aran market and I told her to ignore such fake antics from the said spiritualist.

"But after then my wife will always complain about the pressure from the same Emmanuel and I cannot stop her from doing her legitimate business which she has been using to feed us, more so I'm not that fit.

"Not until Thursday March 21, that she disappeared with her niece, Azeezat and we became worried and all efforts to locate her by a search party proved abortive.

Narrating further Mukaila said it was on Sunday morning that Azeezat suddenly appeared looking pale and exhausted and narrated to them what transpired between the deceased and the spiritualist at Ila-Odo-owa.

"Azeezat told us that she and Tawakalitu slept in the house of the spiritualist on Thursday and Friday nights and that on Saturday morning he gave Tawakalitu a concoction to drink with pap.

"She said after drinking the concoction Emmanuel gave her (Tawakalitu) a bowl where she vomited some liquid portions which the spiritualist took away.

"Azeezat said it was after vomiting that Tawakalitu that she became very weak, exhausted and unconscious and died few minutes later.

According to Mukaila, Azeezat claimed that after she died Emmanuel bundled her body inside a room, locked them together with a warning that she too would die in the same manner if she dared narrate what happened to anybody.

"Azeezat told us that it was on Sunday morning, tired and exhausted without food that she escaped from the house of the spiritualist leaving behind Tawakalitu's dead body.

The bereaved husband narrated further that it was Emmanuel; sensing danger after Azeezat had escaped, who now reported the death of Tawakalitu to the palace of the Olota of Odo-Owa, Oba Josuha Adimula, who in turn briefed the Olomu of Omu-Aran, Oba Abduraheem Adeoti.

He said it was after due consultation between the two monarchs and judging from the enormity of the case at hand that the case was reported to Iloffa police command in Oke-Ero Local Government Area and Emmanuel was promptly arrested.

The Divisional Police Officer in Iloffa was not around when contacted to enquire about the incident on Thursday, March 28, but a senior police officer in the command, who preferred anonymity, confirmed the incident.

He said the case file with the suspect, the body of the victim and her niece had been transferred to the police Headquarters in Ilorin for further investigation.

The source said it took the intervention of the policemen in the command that prevented the suspect from being lynched by an irate mob that had gathered at his house during his arrest.