Bayelsa State Vigilante Service operatives have nabbed a four-man gang allegedly involved in the use of charms and voodoo to dispossess point of sale (POS) operators, business owners and individuals of cash and other valuables in Yenagoa.
Reports said the comparison of Ufuoma John ‘m’ 35 from Delta State, Igwe White ‘m’ 36 from Delta State, Opeko Kennedy ‘m’ from Delta State and Sandra Erhirhis ‘f’ 27 from Rivers State, were apprehended at the weekend after some POS operators and tricycle passengers raised the alarm on their recent nefarious activities.
The Chairman of the Bayelsa State Vigilante Service, Hon. Doubiye Alagba, who confirmed the development in Yenagoa, said the criminal gang had months back allegedly charmed and defrauded one Micah Innocent, a POS operator in the state, of the sum of N400,000 and other valuables.
Alagba said the suspects were arrested in Yenagoa and at a small border community between Bayelsa and Rivers states where they claimed to obtain the charms from a herbalist.
“The syndicates migrate from one POS point to another with the same method to defraud the unsuspecting victims including tricycle passengers. Once they approach their victims and succeed in using charm, the victim will lose control of themselves and they take you to another location and collect all your money and valuables, in some cases they ask you to transfer to their account,” he said.
“Through our intelligence, we arrested one of them, he led us to the residence of another member of their gang who is a native doctor that prepares charm for them and that was how we arrested all of them. The suspects confessed to the crime and narrated that they have been operating within Bayelsa and Rivers State. The suspects further added that they have been operating for long and share percentage of every amount defrauded from victims.”
The suspects have been handed over to Operation Doo-Akpo security operatives for further investigation.