A Lagos magistrate’s court sitting in Ikeja has remanded a native doctor, Ifatade Elegbeleye, in the Kirikiri Prison for allegedly impregnating and swindling his client, Cecilia (pseudonym) to the tune of N7.9m.
The 42-year-old indigene of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, was arraigned before a Chief Magistrate, Mrs. O.A. Olayinka, on five counts bordering on the offences.
Our correspondent had reported that the native doctor was arrested by the X-Squad section of the Lagos State Police Command on December 21, 2015, after the victim reported the case.
Elegbeleye had been accused of having sex with the woman after hypnotising her, but the suspect claimed they were in love with each other and that the sex, which later resulted in a child, was consensual.
The police said Elegbeleye duped Cecilia of the sum through her mother, who is a trader in Abesan Estate, Ipaja.
Fresh developments about the incident indicated that Cecilia was taken to the native doctor in March 2011 for spiritual help on issues bordering on late marriage and spiritual husband.
But Elegbeleye, who had his centre at Olude bus stop, Ipaja, allegedly took advantage of her plights to impregnate and dupe her of the sum between 2011 and 2013.
The police alleged that the native doctor, connived with two others at large to perpetrate the fraud and used the proceeds to build two houses ─ one in Lagos and the other in Ekiti State.
He was subsequently arraigned by a police prosecutor, Inspector Benson Emuerhi, on five counts bordering on fraud and unlawful detention of the complainant.
The police said the offences were punishable under sections 128, 266, 285, 312 cap 42 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.
The charges read in part, “That you, Ifatade Elegbeleye, and others now at large, sometime between March 2011 and April 2013, at Olude bus stop, Ipaja, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: stealing.
“That you and others now at large on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did prevail on the ordeal of the victim by invoking a spell on her as a result of which she lost her mental state.
“That you, Ifatade Elegbeleye, did fraudulently obtain N7.9m from her, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 312, Cap 42, of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.”
The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges and elected summary trial.
Olayinka, the presiding magistrate, granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum, adding that the sureties must present evidence of tax payments.
The case was adjourned till February 11, 2016.
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