A prosecution witness in an ongoing spiritual cleansing scam trial, Dr. Lateef Oladimeji Bello, yesterday, told Justice Rahman Oshodi of a Lagos Special Offences Court, sitting in Ikeja, how seven defendants allegedly obtained the sum of £1 million from him by false pretence.

The defendants: Morufu Yahaya Adewale, Omitogun Ajayi, Ajisegiri Abiodun, Abayomi Kamaldeen Alaka, Taiwo Olamilekan Ahmed, Raufu Wale Raheem and Sanlabiu Owolabi Teslim, were arraigned on a three-count charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The EFCC alleged that the defendants obtained the sum of £1 million from Dr. and Dr. (Mrs.) Lateef Oladimeji Bello, for the purpose of conducting prayers for spiritual cleansing of the family and that the money will be refunded after the prayers within one week, which pretence they knew to be false.

The suspects allegedly obtained the sum of N175 million between August and September 2018 from the couple.

Their alleged offence bordered on conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence contrary to the provision of Section 1(1)(a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and contrary to provision of Section 410 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

They pleaded not guilty to the amended charge.

Following their plea, the EFCC counsel, N.K. Ukoha, informed the court that the witness was in court and ready for trial.

Led-in-evidence by the EFCC counsel, he narrated how one of the defendants, Sanlabiu led him to the fraudsters at a shrine located in Osogbo, to carry out cleansing for the family.

Bello said when they entered the shrine, he was ‘hypnotised’, “I was felling unusual.”

He said: “I thought he was taking me to an Islamic cleric, however, it was a herbalist. In fact, (the second defendant) Omitogun Ajayi, noticed it and told me, ‘focus on this place, do you know where Jesus Christ was born?’

“He now consulted his Osanyin at the shrine, and then he gave us a bill of about N230,000 that we need to buy something like ram and so on, which I paid. He said that I have to bring my wife, and that was the period my wife was preparing for retirement, that she would be the one to pray, when they do their rituals.

“When my wife came, they made incantations and gave us different concoctions to drink. Ajayi who was the main man, said that the Osanyin said that we need to go and see their Baba in Ijebu-Igbo who will finalise the prayer for my son.”

The prosecution witness also narrated how they went to Ijebu Igbo.

He recounted: “Days later, myself, my wife and my son, and Sanlabiu, my driver, Ajayi and one Alfa, who is one of them and currently at large, went to the Ijebu Igbo. When we got there, we met Morufu Yahaya Adewale, who disguised himself as an elderly man of over 100 years old.”

Further hearing of the matter continues today. (The Guardian, excluding headline)

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