A Nigerian man named Azeez Saidi, a security guard has raised alarm after discovering his 19-year-old daughter, Fatima’s ordeal with an herbalist after she suddenly lost weight and became withdrawn.
According to Azeez, her daughter who works as an apprentice at a fashion designers shop around Amukoko area of Lagos, does not sleep and eat well. In his words, in an interview with Punch, he said;
“It became so bad that I was crying while her sister was also crying because we did not know what was wrong with her.
“We bought various drugs but none worked. Their mother died two years ago and I am bringing them up all alone.
“The first day it started, she got back from work that day and said she was very tired. Then from then on, it was like she was a plant that gradually withered.”
It was gathered that on her way to work one fateful day, the exact date the girl’s heavy mind could no longer bear it again, passed by the house of a herbalist, 68-year-old Jimoh Amuda, on Imam Street, Amukoko, who reportedly summoned her.
For more than a month after her encounter with Amuda started, Fatima told no one. But when her father became concerned and started crying over her state, she opened up.
“I was crying, her young brother too was crying. That was when she told me that the herbalist had warned her not to reveal what had happened,” Fatima’s father said.
She said Amuda called her and said she had to make an alms of sugar, salt and cola nuts and the following day, she explained that she went to thank the man for his prayers and instructions. Amuda reportedly sat her down and explained that she needed spiritual help while giving her a fetish item to ingest with pap.
“She told us that after that, the man gave her ‘Hontu’ (a controversial Islamic practice in Nigeria of writing Surah on a slate, washing it off and drinking it for healing and warding off spiritual attacks).
“I was shocked by all these. How can anyone tell her to do all that and she did not make any effort to tell me as her father?
“The most frightening was that after the drink he gave her, he told her to buy waist beads which she had to wear for three days. My daughter said she did not have any money to buy beads and he told her not to worry.
“He gave her a bead, which he said she could either keep and give him N2,000 in exchange or return after she had worn it for three days.
“My daughter said she did not have money, but after wearing it for three days as instructed, she returned it to the man.” Azeez said.
Adding that was when her daughters troubles started, and he raised the alarm after hearing his daughter’s story and one of his brothers reported the matter to the police, after he eventually confronted the man and asked him why he targeted Fatima.
“I wanted to know the reason for it all and he said everything he did for her was just for spiritual healing. I asked if my daughter approached him first and he said he was the one who took interest in her,” he said.
According to a police source, during interrogation, the herbalist confessed that he was just trying to make money but did not state how this connects to the different items he had given Fatima to ingest and use.
“He kept repeating that all he had done for the girl were for spiritual favour (referred to as eyonu in Yoruba). At a point, he was asked to eat some of the items he said he gave the girl to ingest.” The police source said.
Amuda was reported to have been charged to court with enslavement at the Ebute Meta Magistrate’s Court, Lagos, while he’s being remanded at the Kirikiri Prisons till he is able to perfect his bail conditions, while his case would be heard on 15th of September 2017.
Source: Punch
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