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Mudi, 25, claimed it was greed that led him into a life of robbery. He thought crime would fetch him more money than serving as a native doctor.
Chioma Igbokwe
For several months Abdullah Mudi, from Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State, robbed people of their cars with impunity using a toy gun. He was untouchable because of a charm that prevented police arrest. It was the benefit of his practice as a native doctor.
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However, even voodoo and juju obey Murphy’s Law: whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. That aura of invincibility was soon punctured when his partner-in-crime, Christopher Ilia, slipped.
The solo job pulled by Ilia at Garki area of the FCT got them arrested, and for the first time, the thieving native doctor and his criminal sidekick are wondering why their foolproof charm suddenly failed. Now they are wiser that there is no such thing as an effective charm that prevents a criminal from police arrest, eventually, there is always a day of reckoning.
The victim of the last robbery was dispossessed of money, cheque booklets and (ironically) his car key. The initial investigation by the nearest police station did not make headway, thereby prompting a directive from the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and the transfer of the case to IRT operatives.
Soon afterwards, a breakthrough was recorded with the arrest of users of the phones stolen from the victims. Ilia, arrested soon after, confessed and implicated Mudi, the native doctor, as his gang leader. And after Mudi’s arrest, detectives found in his shrine, the stolen key of the Toyota Highlander.
Fall of a native doctor
At the police station, Mudi, 25, claimed it was greed that led him into a life of robbery. He thought crime would fetch him more money than serving as a native doctor.
“I am a native doctor. I treat people of stroke, broken bones and other illness. My father who is now late taught me this and I have been doing it for a long time in Lokoja, but in 2012, one of my friends based in Lagos, invited me. When I met him, he lured me to join his car-snatching business. He said the business would fetch me more money quicker than treating people. I accepted to join him because I was a native doctor and I know I could prepare charms that would prevent us from being arrested. My friend taught me how to drive. Thereafter, we started removing people’s cars from parks. My friend had a master key. At night we would go to any crowded bar and nightclubs where cars are parked on the road. My friend would open two cars of his choice and we would both drive them out, to our buyer who was based in Lokoja. We stole cars mostly around Surulere and Ikeja areas because traffic around those areas wasn’t too busy. We stole about 16 cars in Lagos before I was arrested when police trailed one of the cars to the receiver in Lokoja. The police used the receiver to trick me and got me arrested. But my friend was not apprehended because when I called him on police instruction, he sensed danger and escaped. I was charged to court and remanded in prison. While in prison, I got news that my friend has been killed while attempting to steal someone’s car in Lagos. I spent four years in prison because I couldn’t fulfil my bail conditions. After I came out in 2016, I relocated to Abuja and I started treating people again.”
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Back to his early profession as a native doctor, Mudi swore not to go near crime again. And for some time, he was able to walk straight until he met Ilia.
“Early this year, Ilia came to me for treatment. He told me he had gonorrhoea and I started treating him. In the process, we became friends. He told me that he lost his job as a security guard and he wanted me to assist him. At that time, one of my old customers, a car receiver, was calling me that he needed cheap cars. I was broke. And Ilia, who was desperate to do anything that would fetch him money, suggested that we should get military uniforms, which we got. We started by stopping exotic cars used as cabs. As soon as we entered, we would overpower the owner with a toy gun and drive away his car and valuables. We handed over the cars to the receiver who is at Ejule community in Ofu Local Government of Kogi State. We received between N120, 000 and N150, 000 for each vehicle that we supplied to him.
“The charm I prepared for protection was highly effective. It prevented the police from arresting us. Ilia was the person who got me into trouble again. I don’t know where he went to rob a man of his money and he didn’t disclose the amount of money he took from the man; he brought just the man’s car key to me and ask me to prepare charms that will prevent the man from looking for him. He didn’t even give proper details about the operation. I accepted and kept the key in my shrine and before I knew what was happening he brought the police to my house and they arrested me.”
The small fry who got him arrested
The second suspect, 30-year-old Christopher Ilia, a native of Lokoja, Kogi State, told the police it was his inability to secure a job after he was fired as a security guard that led him to crime.
“I became so desperate after I lost my job I started robbing people of their phones. I usually go out very early in the morning and when I see people whose vehicles are broken down or who are walking alone, I would attack and threaten them with my gun and take their valuables, including phone and money. I can’t remember the number of phones I had stolen this way before I met Mudi, who introduced to the car-snatching business.
“We have robbed three cars together. Mudi is the one responsible for getting a buyer, and he has so many of them. Luckily, I have never been arrested before because Mudi, who is a native doctor, normally prepare a charm that prevented police from arresting us. I can’t understand what went wrong in the case of the man who I attacked and robbed in Garki.”
He recounted that last operation. “Around 5 am, I sighted a man urinating while his car was on. I approached him and pointed my toy gun at him and asked him to show me where he kept the money in his car. The man panicked and told me that the money was inside the car. I collected the bag that contained the money and his phones. I also took his car key, but left the car, because I do not know how to drive. I took his key so that he would not be able to come after me.
“I sold his three phones for N10, 000 each and I also found N450, 000 and some cheque booklets inside the bag. I took his car key to Mudi and I told him to prepare some charm on it so that the owner of the car key will not look for me. Mudi assured me that he would do it and I gave him N5000. I didn’t tell him how I robbed the man or the amount I got from the robbery.
“Then I went on a spending spree. I bought clothes for my girlfriend and furnished my house with part of the money. Unfortunately, one of the persons I sold the phones to, led the police to arrest me, and after I was interrogated, I took the police to Mudi because his charm didn’t work.”
