Operatives of Ogun Police Command and officials of the state’s Ministry of Justice on Friday made fruitless efforts to rescue a family of six, who were kept ‘under house arrest’at Isoso community – an extension of the Government Reservation Area(GRA) of Sagamu, following alleged dreadful charms and fetish objects placed on their home by people suspected to be traditionalists.
Ekundayo Anifowose, his wife and four children were confined indoor since last Sunday evening and could not leave their home for five days because the fence and main gate to their home were festooned with charms and other fetish objects.
A detachment of policemen from Sagamu Police Area Command led by an Inspector however visited the Anifowose’s residence around 4pm on Friday to assess the situation and later returned to their station after they had served a traditional ruler in Sagamu and one other person letters inviting them to appear before the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in charge of the Area Command, Sagamu, by 10am on Monday for questioning in connection with the fetish items.
Ekundayo told The Nation on phone that the traditionalists had demanded the sum of N200, 000 to buy items for sacrifices to appease the gods before the weird items could be evacuated from his residence.
He however said that he preferred to remain indoor than yield to the demands of those who dropped the strange objects.
He said: “It was on Monday morning we discovered the fetish objects when my children were set for school but on getting to the gate, they ran back to my room to tell me that there were some charms at our gate and as at the time of getting to the gate, I saw different types of charms placed in front of my gate.
“Since Monday till this present time, all my children and wife have no access to go anywhere, during the process my children took ill and I had to call our family doctor who brought drugs and passed them to me through safe area of the fence for my children use.
” It was today, Friday following encouragement from friends, I scaled the fence to report it to the Police and the Ogun State Ministry of Justice. The ministry assigned a lawyer who accompanied to the Police Station to lodge a complaint about my ordeal,” Ekundayo said.
As at 5pm Friday, the Anifowoses were still being restricted to their house.
The Nation gathered that the family’s ordeal has to do with a debt of N3.4 million Ekundayo owed a United Kingdom based business woman.
According to Ekundayo, the said amount was part of over N10m he lost to scammers in the past.
The state’s police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent said: “The Area Commander in charge of Sagamu had received a petition from the Anifowoses.The police had visited the residence of Ekundayo Anifowose and taken pictures of the alleged fetish objects” placed there, but the family of six is still within the house because those who placed the strange items have not removed them. No arrest has been made.”