MEET FRANK OSHANUGOR
By Frank Oshanugor
In a circumstance that obviously looks like a case of the hunter becoming the hunted, the evil activities of a suspected scammer and his herbalist client have been revealed following the disappearance and subsequent death of the suspected scammer.
When on the 30th of September 2025, 22-year-old Friday Liberty, visited his herbalist, whom he had known for some time now, little did he know that he would never return home alive.
According to police sources in Asaba, the family members, who initially did not know what happened to their brother, started looking for him until a girlfriend squealed some information to the relations that she over-heard a conversation between the said Friday liberty and a certain herbalist few days prior to when his whereabouts became unknown. Out of concern, she advised that the relations should reach out to the said herbalist.
The family subsequently contacted the herbalist, but he reportedly denied seeing him even though he promised to do some spiritual incantations so their brother could return alive. Having spent money on the herbalist, and the result was not forthcoming, they then reported the matter at the Agbor Area command of Delta State Police Command via a petition on 14th October 2025.
Interestingly, this decision proved to be the turning point in the case as the Area Command detectives embarked on an intelligence-led investigation. During the course of the investigation, the detectives discovered that the last person whom Friday Liberty contacted, was the same herbalist who denied knowing his whereabouts.
Unknown to him, surveillance was laid around his shrine at Owa-Alidima in Ika North East Local Government Area for days, until he was arrested on 23rd October 2025, in his shrine while hiding inside a refrigerator.
Upon arrest of the herbalist Amechi Okwuokenye, aged 20 years and on interrogation, he confessed that he and his brother Smart Okwuokenye, aged 26years, kidnapped the victim Liberty Friday and the motorcycle rider identified as Isioma Ugbeje, who carried him to the shrine.
They further stated that Friday Liberty has been his long-time customer who frequently visited him to hypnotise clients so they could give him money easily( in his words, ‘to tie clients ‘). The herbalist said his elder brother approached him that he needed money and advised him to lure any of his clients so they could kidnap him and ask for ransom, and the unlucky person they could lure was Liberty Friday.
They kidnapped him and the Okada Rider and demanded a ransom of Ten Million Naira (#10,000,000). When they noticed that the plan was not working, they murdered him and the motorcycle rider and dumped their bodies in a soakaway pit by the shrine.
Confirming the incident to ATLANTICNEWSONLINE, Delta State Police spokesman, Bright Edafe, a Superintendent of Police said the suspects are in custody, and the remains of the victims have been evacuated and deposited at the mortuary for autopsy.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Delta State, Olufemi Abaniwonda has assured the public that the command will ensure that justice is served in this case.
