Detectives from the Agbor Area Command in Delta State have arrested a 20-year-old herbalist, Amechi Okwuokenye, and his elder stepbrother for allegedly abducting and killing a suspected internet fraudster, Friday Liberty, aged 22.
The suspects were arrested on October 23, 2025, at the herbalist’s shrine in Owa-Alidima, Ika North East Local Government Area. The police also recovered the victim’s body from the shrine and deposited it in a mortuary.
Confirming the incident, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, said in a statement that detectives launched an investigation after the victim was reported missing by his family.
According to the statement, “It was a case of the hunter becoming the hunted, when on the 30th of September 2025, Mr Friday Liberty, aged 22 years old, visited his herbalist, whom he had known for some time now, but this time, he never returned. The family, who initially didn’t know what had happened to their brother, started looking for him.”
“The girlfriend of the deceased then informed the family that she heard a conversation about the said Friday Liberty and a certain herbalist, and advised that they should reach out to the said herbalist.
“The family contacted the herbalist, who denied seeing him but 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 via a petition on 14th October 2025.
“And this decision proved to be the turning point in the case as the Area Command detectives embarked on an intelligence-led investigation.”
Edafe said further investigation showed that Liberty’s last contact was with the herbalist, who was later tracked down after days of surveillance.
“During the course of the investigation, the detectives uncovered the last person whom Friday Liberty contacted, and found out it was the same herbalist who denied knowing his whereabouts. Surveillance was laid around his shrine at Owa-Alidima in Ika North East LGA, for days, until he was arrested on 23rd October 2025, in his shrine while hiding inside a refrigerator.”
The police spokesman said the suspect confessed that he and his brother lured the victim and a motorcycle rider, who had conveyed him to the shrine, before killing them.
“Upon his arrest of the herbalist Amechi Okwuokenye, aged 20 years, confessed that both he and his brother Smart Okwuokenye, aged 26 years, 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 visits 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 N10,000,000. 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.”
Edafe added that the remains of the victims have been recovered and deposited in a mortuary for autopsy.
He said the suspects remain in custody, while the Commissioner of Police, CP Olufemi Abaniwonda, has assured the public that justice will be served.