He was sleeping, I slipped into his room and put my cutlass on his neck —Babalawo, 22

He slipped into the victim's room around midnight. The man was sleeping, naked, lying on his stomach. The suspect put his cutlass on his neck. Suddenly awakened from his sleep by the pain, he weakly tried to get up. The suspect climbed on top of him and immobilized him with a pillow, face down, until he became inert. Then the suspect collected his blood in a white plastic cup to prepare charms to earn money.

This was part of a confession by Idowu Talabi, a 22-year-old indigenous doctor, who was arrested by Ogun State Police Command for killing Isau Oluwatobiloba, a tenant of his son's house. grandfather where he also lived.

Talabi after killing the man took blood from his victim's neck and returned to his room to mix it with herbs and concoctions, ready to be sold as a charm to make money to potential customers.

Talabi was arrested last Sunday by detectives from the State Police Command's Ikenne Division after the deceased's 30-year-old wife told police she had just returning from a church vigil to find the lifeless body of her husband on her bed, with blood pouring from her neck at their residence at 4, Bestway Moro Street, Ikenne, having been beaten with a machete by a unknown.

Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the story, said Divisional Police Officer, CSP Ibrahim Ningi led his detectives to the scene, where he was discovered that the deceased had been killed while sleeping on his bed.

The PPRO further stated that it was also noticed that there was no break-in at the premises and nothing was removed from the room.

SP Oyeyemi added that this indicated that the murder was carried out by an insider, which caused all the occupants of the house to be taken to the station for questioning.

"After a thorough investigation, Idowu Talabi, who claimed to be an indigenous doctor, confessed to being the person who killed the deceased. When asked the reason for the despicable act, the suspect alleged that the deceased liked to accuse him of theft, and that was what prompted him to kill the man when he discovered that the deceased was home alone, sleeping,” the spokesperson said. the police said.

Detectives also recovered the cutlass used by the suspect to commit the crime.

In an interview, Talabi told the Saturday Tribune, "I'm an indigenous doctor. I learned it from a Baba. My father and my mother are separated. My father left my mother six children when we We were young. I live in the house of my maternal grandfather. It was my mother who sent me to school but I stopped at JSS3 when I noticed that I was not brilliant.< /p>

"I went to train as an indigenous doctor (babalawo), even though my family practice Christianity. It was because my mother and I did a spiritual investigation to verify my destiny (akosedaye) and we said I was destined to become a Babalawo.

"After training for six years, I started to practice divination and take care of customers. I used to make soaps for them to facilitate sales (ose itaja), to obtain the mercy of people (ose aanu) and for spiritual covering (asiri bibo). I used different herbs mixed with soap. I used to collect between 5,000 and 10,000 naira in fees.”

Why I was arrested

"Last Saturday, a tenant, Oluwatobi, came back from his shop around 11 p.m. He ate, took his bath and went to his room. At that time, his wife had gone to the vigil at the church with their only child. He did not lock his door but pulled the screen door open and secured it. After that he lay naked on his stomach on his bed and fell asleep.

"I was living in the boys' quarters but I slipped through the back door into the downstairs hallway of the main building where Oluwatobi had his room. Only the front door was locked, the one behind left open. There was no light; I used the flashlight on my phone.

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"I used a knife to cut the net so I could reach the lock. I opened it and used the cutlass I had brought to slit his neck. The wound and the pain woke him from sleep but before he could raise his head and struggle I mounted him from behind and used his pillow to pin him to the bed to suffocate him. until it becomes soft.

"When I noticed he was dead, I used the cutlass on his neck again to draw out more blood. I went outside, found a white plastic cup and I I used to collect blood from the wound. I locked his door with his padlock from the outside and threw away the key.

"I went to my room and mixed the blood with a concoction called 'ebu'. My intention was to sell to my customers who would need charms to make money."

How my action was discovered

"When his wife came back from church, she opened the door with her padlock key, thinking that her husband had also gone to church and had not yet arrived home. But when. ..