From Molly Kilete, Abuja
A 57-year-old native doctor has told how one of his customers cheated him by giving him N50,000, instead of the N5 million they agreed after helping him kill his fiancée who until her untimely death was a personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The suspect, Rafiu Afolabi, a native of Shaki, in Oyo State, said that his customer, Christopher Akpan, who he met through the deceased NSCDC personnel, had promised to pay him N5 million to kill a woman whom he was owing huge amount of money.
He said that Akpan had told him that the woman he was owing was a very wicked person and that he wanted her dead and promised to give him N5 million if he agrees to carry out the deal.
But unknown to Afolabi, the said woman Josephine Cynthia Oche, from Benue State, had been his long time customer with whom he not only help with spiritual matters, but was also buying farm produce from him.
The suspect who combines his native doctor business with farming told Sunday Sun that he had known Cynthia for over 10 years and that it was Cynthia who actually introduced her killer to him as the man she wanted to settle down with.
And so he said he was shocked to his marrow on the D-day the killing was to take place, when Akpan, brought Cynthia to his shrine.
He said that he could not believe what he was seeing but because of the N5 million Akpan had promised to give to him, he played along with him.
However, few days after the incident, Cynthia’s family lodged a complaint of her disappearance and petitioned the Inspector General of Police, who then directed the Intelligence Response Team(IRT), to carry out investigations on the matter.
During the investigation, it was discovered that the last places Cynthia visited was her fiance at Uyo, and the shrine of the native doctor in her home state.
It took intense efforts, massive follow up and investigations by operatives of IRT, before the crime was eventually uncovered.
The police have since exhumed the decomposed body of the deceased and intends to carry out further confirmatory DNA test on her body.
Akpan was said to have earlier collected N14 million from Cynthia which he never wanted to pay.
The two suspects speak:
The native doctor in an interview with Sunday Sun narrated how the deceased who was also his customer was murdered.
“My name is Rafiu Afolabi. I was born at Shaki, Oyo State in 1954, I don’t know my real age. I am a native doctor and I am also a farmer. I relocated to Benue State many years ago from Shaki to start my business. When I got here, the people welcomed me and gave me a place to stay. Because of the large place they allocated to me, I engaged in farming in addition to my native doctor work to make more money. I also married one of their daughters and have two children with her.
“I was arrested because one man Christopher Akpan promised to give me N5 million. He said he was owing somebody money and that that person is a very wicked person and he wanted to deal with the person. So, he said I should help him kill the person and I never knew the person he wanted me to kill was my customer who brought him to my shrine and introduced him as the man she wanted to marry.
“Before we killed her, Akpan had everything well planned as he made the woman visit him in his village and it was from there that he brought her to my place. When they eventually arrived my place, I was shocked to find that it is this same woman because she had been to my shrine before with somebody who sells mortar and asked me to do something for the person to be making sales.
“The woman also buys yam from me in very large quantity from time to time, she has been my long standing customer. They came to my place at about 6 O’clock and he told his wife that he wanted to do something for her to get pregnant immediately they get married. So, he told her that she will have to bath with the soap and water in a calabash, but that we have to get inside the bush. The woman was afraid, but she followed us. I carried the bucket of water and went to the spot where we agreed to carry out the attack. On getting to the exact spot, he brought out the gun which is my gun and shot her from the back and she fell down flat and died. After killing her, he asked me to burn the body, but I told him I will not be able to because I have never done such thing in my life. Then he asked me to go and get a hoe which I did and we dug a shallow grave, buried her and left. Then I asked him for the N5 million he promised me, but he only gave me N50,000. Then he opened the bag of the woman and brought out N700,000, before my very eyes, took the money with her ATM card, purse, identity card, wrapper and other things and left. He promised to come back in one week time to give me the N5 million. But later that evening I began to call him, but his numbers were no longer connecting and so I got afraid and ran back to my village at Shaki. It was while I was at Shaki that the police tracked my number and somebody called me one day that he was a soldier and asked that we meet. I didn’t know at this time that the police was already at Shaki. When we eventually met, he told me that one woman got missing from my place and that they were looking for her and that they wanted to arrest me. He said he was supposed to arrest me, but he would not but asked me to remove my SIM from my phone and I did and gave it to him and ran away.”
On my he betrayed the trust of the woman who he claims to be his very good customer, Afolabi, said, “honestly it is because of the money that he (Akpan) promised to give me and besides I didn’t know from the onset that it was my customer that he told me about I would not have agreed. I was very shocked when he appeared with her at my place, but the money he promised to give to me occupied my mind that I didn’t have a rethink. But I now regret my actions because I ended up not getting the N5 million. I only got N50,000, for taking somebody’s life. The gun we used in killing the woman is my gun, I use it for hunting and protecting myself. I feel very bad now and regret my act.”
Akpan, who looks every inch unrepentant of his crime said that he knew nothing about what the native doctor was talking about, saying that he was not a party to how the woman who he said he loved very much was murdered.
He said: “My name is Christopher Akpan. I am 57 years old. What the native doctor is saying is not the true picture of what happened. What happened is this. Josephine is the woman I wanted to marry. I have made arrangement to marry Josephine and my wedding date was 28 and 29 day of December 2019. I live at Akwa Ibom State.
“On December 16, 2019, Josephine called me that she wanted to come to Akwa Ibom to know how the preparations was going on and I now told her to come. I transferred N5,000, for Josephine to use as transport from Oturkpo to Akwa Ibom. On December 17, 2019, Josephine arrived Akwa Ibom safely in my house and stayed with me till December 19, when she said she was going back. I took her to the park at Ikot Ekpene where she took a vehicle to Umuahia.
“On reaching Umuahia, she boarded a vehicle at ACOA park that took her to Oturkpo. When Josephine arrived Oturkpo, I was at Akwa Ibom, she called me that she arrived Oturkpo safely that same day at about 3 O’clock in the evening and we discussed at length. She also called me on December 20, that she was indebted to somebody that she was owing one of her brother’s wife N50,000, when I sent her to Lagos to buy clothes for our traditional wedding and I transferred the N50,000 to her and she received the money. As far as I know, Josephine left my home to Oturkpo and arrived safely.”