The Delta State Police Command has arrested a 20-year-old herbalist, Amechi Okwuokenye, and his 26-year-old brother, Smart Okwuokenye, for allegedly kidnapping and killing two men in Owa-Alidima, Ika North East Local Government Area of the state.
The command’s spokesperson, SP Bright Edafe, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying the victims’ bodies had been recovered and deposited in the mortuary for autopsy.
According to the statement, the incident began on September 30, 2025, when one of the victims, 22-year-old Friday Liberty, visited the herbalist but never returned home.
“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,” Edafe said.
The statement noted that Liberty’s family, who became worried about his disappearance, later received information from his girlfriend suggesting that he had gone to see a certain herbalist.
“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,” Edafe stated.
Following the petition, the spokesperson said the detectives launched an intelligence-led investigation and identified the herbalist as the last person to have had contact with the missing victim.
“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 statement continued.
