Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have arrested a 20-year-old herbalist, Amechi Okwuokenye, and his elder brother, Smart Okwuokenye, 26, for allegedly kidnapping and killing two men in Owa-Alidima community, Ika North East Local Government Area of the state.
The Command’s spokesperson, SP Bright Edafe, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, said the victims’ remains had been recovered and deposited in a mortuary for autopsy.
According to Edafe, the incident began on September 30, 2025, when one of the victims, identified as 22-year-old Friday Liberty, visited the herbalist for spiritual consultation but never returned home.
Liberty’s family, alarmed by his disappearance, reportedly received information from his girlfriend that he had gone to see a herbalist in the area.
When contacted, the herbalist denied seeing Liberty but promised to perform spiritual rites to ensure his return.
After spending money on the supposed rituals without result, the family petitioned the Agbor Area Command on October 14.
“Detectives immediately commenced an intelligence-led investigation and discovered that the herbalist was the last person to have seen the missing man alive,” Edafe said.
He added that operatives mounted surveillance around the suspect’s shrine in Owa-Alidima for several days until he was eventually arrested on October 23 while hiding inside a refrigerator.
Upon interrogation, the herbalist allegedly confessed that he and his brother kidnapped both Liberty and a commercial motorcyclist, identified as Isioma Ugbeje, who had conveyed Liberty to his shrine.
“He stated that Liberty had been a longtime client who came to him to perform charms to hypnotise people into giving him money easily,” the statement read.
“The herbalist further confessed that his elder brother had persuaded him to lure one of his customers for ransom, and they chose Liberty.
When the ransom demand of ₦10 million failed, they killed both Liberty and the motorcycle rider and dumped their bodies in a soakaway pit behind the shrine,” Edafe added.
The police spokesperson confirmed that the suspects are in custody while investigations continue.
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Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Abaniwonda, condemned the gruesome act and assured the victims’ families that justice would be served.
