Police operatives from the Agbor Area Command have arrested a 20-yearold herbalist, Amechi Okwuokenye, and his 26-year-old stepbrother, Smart Okwuokenye, for allegedly abducting and killing a suspected internet fraudster, Friday Liberty, aged 22, at a shrine in Owa-Alidima, Ika NorthEast Local Government Area of Delta State.
According to the police, the herbalist was arrested on October 23, 2025, after days of surveillance around his shrine, where the decomposing body of the victim was later recovered and deposited in the mortuary.
Confirming the incident, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, said in a statement that the investigation began after Liberty’s family reported him missing.
It was a case of the hunter becoming the hunted, Edafe stated. On September 30, 2025, the victim, Friday Liberty, visited the herbalist he had known for some time but never returned home.
His family began searching for him when he failed to return, and a report was later made to the police.
According to Edafe, the victim’s girlfriend informed the family that she overheard a conversation linking Liberty’s disappearance to the herbalist. When contacted, the herbalist denied seeing him but promised to perform spiritual rituals to ensure his safe return.
After the family spent money on the herbalist with no results, they petitioned the Agbor Area Command on October 14, 2025, prompting detectives to open a full investigation.
Through intelligence-led investigation, detectives discovered that the last person Liberty contacted was the same herbalist who denied knowing his whereabouts, Edafe revealed. After days of surveillance, the herbalist was eventually arrested at his shrine while hiding inside a refrigerator.
During interrogation, the suspect allegedly confessed to conspiring with his stepbrother, Smart Okwuokenye, to kidnap Liberty and the motorcycle rider, Isioma Ugbeje, who had taken him to the shrine.
Edafe said the herbalist admitted that Liberty had been his long-time client, often visiting to seek spiritual assistance to hypnotize people into giving him money.
The suspect claimed his brother suggested kidnapping one of his clients to raise money, and Liberty was chosen.
They kidnapped him and the Okada rider and demanded a ransom of ₦10 million. When the ransom failed, they killed both victims and dumped their bodies in a soakaway pit beside the shrine, the statement read.
SP Edafe confirmed that the suspects remain in custody, while the victims’ bodies have been evacuated for autopsy.
He added that the Commissioner of Police, CP Olufemi Abaniwonda, has assured the public that justice will be served and that the suspects will face the full weight of the law.
