He Was Sleeping, I Crept Into His Room And Landed My Cutlass On His Neck — 22-Year-Old Narrates

At almost midnight, he crept into the victim's room. The man was sleeping on his stomach and was naked. The suspect's neck was cut by the knife. Pain rudely woke him up from his sleep, and he tried to get up but couldn't. The suspect got on top of him and held him down face down with a pillow until he went limp. The suspect then put his blood in a white plastic cup so that he could make money-making charms.


This was part of what Idowu Talabi, a 22-year-old native doctor, said when he confessed to killing Isau Oluwatobiloba, a tenant in his grandfather's house where he was also living. He was arrested by the Ogun State police command.

After killing the man, Talabi took some blood from the man's neck and went back to his room to mix it with herbs and potions so he could sell it as a money-making charm to potential customers.

Talabi was arrested on Sunday by detectives in the Ikenne division of the state police command. The 30-year-old victim's wife told the police that she had just come back from a church vigil and found her husband dead on his bed with blood coming from his neck at their home at 4, Bestway Moro Street, Ikenne. He had been cut with a machete by someone who has not been found.


The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the story. He said that the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Ibrahim Ningi, led his detectives to the scene, where they found that the victim had been killed while sleeping in his bed.

The PPRO also said that it was clear that no one had broken in and nothing had been taken from the room.

SP Oyeyemi said that this showed that the killing was done by someone inside the house, so all the people who lived there were taken to the station to be questioned.

"After a thorough investigation, Idowu Talabi, who said he was a native doctor, admitted to killing the dead person. When asked why he did such a horrible thing, the suspect said that the dead man often accused him of stealing, which is what made him kill the man when he found him sleeping alone at home, a police spokesman said.

The detectives also found the suspect's cutlass, which he had used to do the crime.

Talabi told Saturday Tribune in an interview, "I'm a native doctor. I was taught it by a Baba. My dad and mom are no longer together. When we were young, my father left my mother with six children. I live in the house of my mother's grandfather. My mother sent me to school, but I quit in JSS3 because I didn't think I was very smart.

"Even though my family is Christian, I went to school to become a native doctor (a babalawo). This is because my mother and I went on a spiritual inquiry (akosedaye) to find out what my destiny was, and we found out that I was meant to be a Babalawo.

"After six years of training, I began to use divination and help clients. I used to make soaps for them to help them sell (ose itaja), to get people to be kind to them (ose aanu), and to cover them spiritually (asiri bibo). I used a mixture of different herbs and soap. I used to charge anywhere from N5,000 to N10,000."

Why I was put in jail

"A tenant named Oluwatobi came home from his shop around 11 o'clock last Saturday night. He ate, took a shower, and went to bed. By that time, his wife had taken their only child to a church vigil. He didn't lock his door, but instead pulled the mosquito net door shut and tied it. After that, he went to bed naked and slept on his stomach.

"I lived in the boys' quarters, but I sneaked into Oluwatobi's room through the back door on the ground floor of the main building. The back door was left open, and only the front door was locked. There was no light, so I used the flashlight on my phone.

"I cut the net with a knife so I could get to the lock. I opened it and cut his neck with the cutlass I had brought. Pain and injury woke him up, but before he could get up and fight, I jumped on his back and used his pillow to pin him to the bed so he couldn't breathe. He fought until he gave up.

"When I saw that he was dead, I used the cutlass again on his neck to get more blood out. I went outside and found a white plastic cup, which I used to get some blood from the wound. I locked his door from the outside with his padlock and threw away the key.

"I went to my room and mixed the blood with something called "ebu." I wanted to sell money-making charms to my clients who needed them.

How my act was found out

"When his wife got home from church, she opened the door with her padlock key because she thought her husband had also gone to church and hadn't yet come home. But when she got inside, she saw the dead body of her husband on the bed. She screamed when she saw that he was dead. I went out with everyone else. She grabbed me by the shirt and said I killed her husband. I didn't say anything.

"People around her told her to leave my shirt alone and go to the police station to report it. The police came with her to see the body of her husband. They took the body to the morgue and then went back to the house to get all the men who lived there.

"The police took us to the station and questioned us. I first said I wasn't the killer, but later I admitted it."

Why I killed the other person

"He used to blame me every time his money went missing from his room. It was not me who did it.

"But that wasn't the only reason he was killed. I thought I could make money from my clients by making them a "Osole" money-making charm with human blood. I thought I would make sales from people who wanted it."

Talabi asked for forgiveness, saying that what he did was against the law and against the norms and traditions of society.

"I have never killed before. And I'm not on drugs. I only took beer, and that day I drank six bottles. My mother owns a beer store, so that night I went there to get three bottles. When I got home, I bought three more bottles, all of which I drank.

"I knew the law said that anyone who kills should be killed, but I didn't think about it. I want the federal government to help me and show me mercy. Talabi promised, "I won't ever do something like that again."

Lanre Bankole, who is the state's police chief, has ordered that the suspect be sent right away to the State Criminal Investigation Department's Homicide Section for further investigation and possible prosecution.