Detectives of the Delta State Police Command have arrested a 20-year-old herbalist, Amechi Okwuokenye, and his 26-year-old stepbrother, Smart Okwuokenye, for the alleged murder of two victims, including one of the herbalist’s regular clients, Friday Liberty, aged 22.
According to a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, the case began when Liberty visited the herbalist on September 30, 2025, and never returned home. His family, after fruitless attempts to locate him, grew suspicious when his girlfriend mentioned hearing conversations linking him to the herbalist.
The family contacted the herbalist, who denied seeing Liberty and instead offered to perform “spiritual incantations” to help bring him back. When no result came, the family lodged a petition at the Agbor Area Command on October 14, 2025.
Following the report, detectives launched an intelligence-led investigation, which revealed that the last person Liberty had contacted was indeed the herbalist. Surveillance was placed around his shrine in Owa-Alidima, Ika North East Local Government Area, leading to his arrest on October 23, 2025.
Police sources said the suspect was found hiding inside a refrigerator within his shrine when officers moved in. During interrogation, Okwuokenye allegedly confessed to the crime and implicated his stepbrother.
He told investigators that Liberty, a long-time client who often sought charms to “hypnotize” his business associates, was lured to the shrine under the pretext of another ritual. Together with his brother, he allegedly kidnapped Liberty and the motorcycle rider, Isioma Ugbeje, who had conveyed him there.
The suspects reportedly demanded a ransom of ₦10 million, but when the payment failed, they allegedly murdered both men and dumped their bodies in a soakaway pit beside the shrine.
Police have since recovered the decomposed remains of the victims and deposited them at a mortuary for autopsy.
