A man who desired wealth but lacked the means to achieve it resorted to the option of using his manhood for money rituals but his effort ended in double jeopardy as his friend allegedly fled with the princely sum he realised from the rituals, writes KUNLE AKINRINADE.
The Ex-soldier, TAOFEEK Akinolu looked unruffled in his bright ankara fabric matched with a cap. But his peaceful mien was a sharp contrast with the the anger that boiled his mind as he walked into a peacemaking meeting in Oko Oba part of Agege, Lagos during the week.
Moments after the meeting, he opened up on his loss to a friend millions of naira that ought to accrue from a money ritual he had undergone, using his manhood as sacrifice.
“Someone stole my money and I am looking for him,” he told the reporter, demanding that his face be shielded to avoid public mockery because of his relative popularity in his community.
Oloriebi, as the 55-year-old ex-soldier/security man who lives around Imeko Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State is fondly called, had become agitated since his most trusted ally bolted with ‘his money’.
After a career in the Nigerian Army, he had worked as a security man with various companies. But hard up for money and tired of working for people for so many years with nothing tangible to show for it, he decided to approach an aged herbalist reputed for his skills in money-making rituals.
He said: “I was tired of working fruitlessly. I have done all kinds of work for many years, including serving as a soldier in the Nigerian Army, to make ends meet and become successful in life, but all my efforts were in vain.
“So, at a point, I decided to brave the odds and do whatever it would take or cost me to become rich in life.”
Oloriebi thus approached Edun Akinrole, an aged herbalist based in Benin Republic, who assured him that he would become rich after certain propitiations had been carried out.
The soldier turned security man said: “When I became tired of working without getting rich, I approached the herbalist who actually I have known for a long time.
“Baba (Akinrole) is about 110 years old and I know he has what it takes to bring good fortune to me and make me rich.
“Baba told me that certain sacrifices and propitiations were needed for the work, including exchanging my manhood for riches and I agreed. The cost of the sacrifices and propitiations was N350,000 and I paid.
“The process was to last two weeks, following which a spirit would bring about N7 million about seven times within one week.”
According to Oloriebi, while he still had two weeks left in the employ of the company where he was working as a security personnel on night duties, he got a call from the herbalist who told him that the propitiations that would attract the money should be kept with him in a room for one week during which he must remain indoor so he would be able to monitor the ghost that would drop the money in the dead of night.
Not wanting to absent himself from duties at his place of work, Oloriebi said he asked Akinrole if he could detail someone else to receive the money on his behalf. With Akinrole’s approval, Oloriebi struck a deal with a Muslim cleric of his acquaintance to take custody of the propitiations and receive the money on his behalf with a promise to give Akinrole a lump sum, buy him a car and build him a house and a mosque.
“I decided to introduce a man of my acquaintance who is an alfa (Muslim cleric) to the herbalist, so he would stay with the propitiations in his room for the one week the ghost would bring the money because I would be away at work on night duty,” Oloriebi said.
‘How my trusted friend betrayed me’
However, from the moment the deal with the 47-year-old Alfa Orija was struck, the matter became complicated and ultimately created a gulf between them.
Oloriebi said: “At the end of the seven days, the entire money had been dropped by the ghost as the herbalist predicted. Alfa Orija himself called me on the phone and I quickly rushed down to his residence to see things for myself.
“After sighting the money, I restated my promises to him which, of course, included building him a house and a mosque, getting him a car of his choice and giving him substantial cash for his support, and I left his house.
“But by the time I visited him the next day for the purpose of sharing the money, things surprisingly changed. I was told that he ran away as soon as I left his house and it has become difficult to retrieve the money from him. That is why I am crying out now.”
“He has been running away from me. He ran off to Agbede, Iwoye, Imeko and later Ejio in Oyo State, and left there for fear of being tracked. He is now in Benin Republic.”
Futile attempt to recover money
While Oloriebi’s claim that a ghost brought in billions of naira to Orija could not be verified, he said he had since launched a search for the fleeing Muslim cleric but his efforts were yet to yield any fruit.
He said: “After he (Orija) initially ran off to Imeko, I tracked him on his way to the residence of one of his new girlfriends and apprehended him. I gagged him with the help of some local vigilante and he was brought to me in the wee hours.
“I held him and took him to the herbalist where he initially lied that he had kept the money somewhere at Obada village and promised to lead us to where the money was being kept.
“He again bolted while he was being led to the place he claimed he kept the money and has since crossed over from Imeko to Cotonou in the Republic of Benin.
“Orija is now hiding in Cotonou. He told some people that intervened on my behalf and confronted him with the recorded voice of the aged herbalist that helped me with the money rituals that he was the one who actually finished the atonement before the money started dropping and that he collected the money from a ghost at night.
“And that was exactly what the herbalist predicted: that a ghost would bring the money at night. So, the money is not government money; it is from rituals.
“He (Orija) claimed that we had an agreement before the money dropped. But he later reneged saying that we would have to share the money equally, but he subsequently fled with the money.
“He is using some members of a faction of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) to protect himself from being smoked out of hiding.”
Asked why he did not stay at home to receive the money himself as instructed by the herbalist, Oloriebi said: “I had resigned from the company where I was working as a security guard and I had just two weeks left to officially exit the company when the herbalist suddenly informed me that the rituals had been completed, urging me to come and take the items to my house.
“At that point, I felt that it would not be proper for me to secure the ritual items while I would be away at work as it required me to stay indoor for seven days to monitor how the money would be dropped in batches by the ghost. Hence I contacted Orija to help me out and he agreed.
“So, I took him to the herbalist who gave him some charms to prepare him for the task ahead.
“I don’t know any of his family members except his wives, and he has taken them along when he was running away from our community.
“At the initial point, I decided not to apprehend one of his wives who did not go with him because she was heavily pregnant at the time. I felt that holding the woman for the iniquities of her husband was wrong.
“Besides, I felt that if anything happened to her in my custody, the table could turn against me hence I left the woman alone. But Orija later sneaked into town and took her away to his base in Benin Republic where the woman was delivered of a baby.
“I used to think that Orija was an indigene of Kwara State because he speaks Ilorin dialect. I never knew that he is from the Republic of Benin until this matter came up between us and residents told me that he is from one of the Egun-speaking communities in neighbouring Benin Republic but had been lying to me.
“Alfa Orija is someone I had helped to free from police custody after he was allegedly arrested for beating up someone during an argument.
“I even gave him a place to stay in my mother’s family house. I never knew he has bad intentions and that he is not really a true Muslim cleric.
“He is investing my money in FOREX in Cotonou where he has bought a range of cars including the latest Toyota Venza and Corolla.
“Please tell him to return my money to me because I would not stop until I retrieve my money from him.”
Told that the so called huge sums he spoke about might not be real and he might have been duped by the herbalist, Orija or both them, he insisted that the money was very real, not only because he sighted it himself, his manhood which the herbalist said would stop working had since stopped working.
“I saw the money with my naked eyes. They were crisp new naira notes on the floor. Moreover, I have lost my manhood just like the herbalist warned and I can no longer father a child as I am talking to you.”
Herbalist speaks
The aged herbalist who was said to have carried out the money rituals for Oloriebi explained in a telephone conversation with the reporter that the matter was actually true and the money was real. He said that Alfa Orija ran away after he had collected the money on behalf of Oloriebi, who he said brought the items for the rituals to his house.
He said: “We are all looking for what to eat; may God not let us be eaten by devourers.
“All the things that Oloriebi told you are the truth of the matter. I was the one that did the spiritual work for Oloriebi and he brought Orija to keep the spiritual item that would make the money to drop in the night.
“Let me tell you, the money is seven million naira in seven places, because that was the way the money dropped for seven days.
“Everyone prays for uplifting which could be done through spiritual work so that good fortune can come their way, and that is exactly what Oloriebi did.
“I knew Orija as an alfa and I never knew that he was such a queer character. I have spoken with him on his mobile phone several times after he absconded with Oloriebi’s money and he hung up on me and started attacking me spiritually.
“He has stopped taking my calls and he is no longer reachable via his mobile numbers. I have been shuttling between Imeko in Nigeria and the Benin Republic because of waning health.
“Orija has been giving money to those who intervened to shut their mouths and there is little or nothing I can do about it.”
Efforts made to speak with Alfa Orija yielded no result as his MTN and Airtel lines were switched off. He also had not responded to the messages sent to his phone at press time.
But besides losing money, Oloriebi is also lamenting his loss of manhood.
He said: “I can no longer make love to a woman because I have exchanged my manhood for riches. I did not want to spend the rest of my life in poverty and that was the reason I opted for money ritual, having served in the military and worked as a security man without having money. Please, let the story go viral so he can come out of hiding and return my money.”
