A 20-year-old herbalist, Amechi Okwuokenye, has been arrested by operatives of the Delta State Police Command over the murder of one of his clients and the motorcyclist who brought the client to his shrine at Owa-Alidima, in Ika North-East Local Government Area of the state.

The decomposing bodies were recovered in a septic tank beside the shrine.

Preliminary investigation by the command revealed that one of the victims, Liberty Friday, aged 22, had visited the herbalist for what was meant to be a routine consultation, but never returned home.

Back at home, his family members became apprehensive after several days of frantic search for him yielded no result. Liberty’s girlfriend (name withheld) reportedly recalled overhearing a conversation linking her late lover to the herbalist, upon which the family contacted him.

However, Amechi denied knowledge of the victim’s whereabouts and offered to perform “spiritual incantations” to bring him back, collecting money in the process.

Dissatisfied, the distraught family petitioned the Agbor Area Command on October 14, 2025, following which an intelligence-led investigation reportedly revealed that the herbalist was the last person seen with the missing man.

Nabbed

Spokesman for the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, who confirmed the arrest, explained that surveillance was mounted around the suspect’s shrine for days until he was arrested on October 23, 2025, while hiding inside a refrigerator.

“Upon the arrest of the herbalist, Amechi Okwuokenye, he confessed that he and his brother, Smart Okwuokenye, aged 26, kidnapped the victim, Liberty Friday, and the motorcycle rider identified as Isioma Ugbeje, who had conveyed him to the shrine.

“He further stated that Friday Liberty had been his long-time client who frequently visited him to hypnotise others so they could give him money easily (in his words, ‘to tie clients’).

“The herbalist said his elder brother approached him, saying he needed money, and advised him to lure any of his clients so they could kidnap him and demand ransom. The unlucky person they decided to lure was Liberty Friday.

“They kidnapped him and the okada rider and demanded a ransom of ?10,000,000. When they realised the plan was not working, they murdered both men and dumped their bodies in a septic pit beside the shrine.

“Suspects are in custody, and the remains of the victims have been evacuated and deposited at the mortuary for autopsy,” Edafe stated. (Vanguard)