An investigative report has uncovered the activities of some fake Muslim clerics in Ikeja, Lagos State, who specialize in selling anti-evil spirit drinks.
The founder of the Foundation of Investigative Journalism, Fisayo Soyombo, had released a series of reports which has seen him uncovered several unscrupulous religious activities.
In his latest investigation, he narrated how he was extorted by some fake Muslim clerics in Ikeja after he had went under the guise of a gay man who needs deliverance.
While narrating his visit to an Islamic Healing Center, Inyahu Sunnah around Alausa Secretariat Mosque, he explained that he was made to buy series of items to deliver him from his acclaimed sexual orientation.
“My mind wanders away from all the noise when I’m told it’s my turn to see the spiritual doctor. A soft-spoken dark-complexioned man, likely in his late 40s to mid-50s, he asks me to explain the problem. I give him the usual line, and he asks to know how long I’ve been gay for. “Ten years,” I answer.
“He picks up a pen and starts to write a list of spiritual drugs I am to buy. Just like that. He tells me they are available at the ‘chemist’ at the centre: the attendants are to give me the dosages for the materials. The doctor writes 15 lines of medication totalling N24,200, but I can’t make out the contents — save ‘Habatu Oil Royal’ and ‘Habatu Capsule’.
He also narrated how he was instructed to take the unorthodox drugs which were given you him.
“You will get an empty bottle, pour everything into it, and shake it vigorously,” he says of the ‘Tea Tree Oil’. “Before you eat in the morning, you will take two teaspoons of it. Then in the evening, after dinner, you’ll take another two.”
“He fetches another bottle, this time of the ‘Ma’u Ta’Azibul Jinn Evil Spirit Drink’, and says the dosage is the same: two teaspoons in the morning, another two at night. On the bottle is a scary photo of a monstrous creature with bulgy eyes and oversized teeth. It looks so scary that it feels like the devil itself is inside the bottle to be drunk. Am I drinking the evil spirit itself or am I gulping the drink that will expel the evil spirit?
“In fact, all these four are to be taken the same way,” he adds on the evil spirit drink. “Two teaspoons in the morning, another two at night. When you’re done with one, you move to the second until you get to the fourth.”
“He gives me another. “Two capsules in the morning, two capsules in the evening.”
Has narrated by him, he was also made to see another cleric identified as Alfa Maruf who prescribed him a water and also instructed him on how he was meant to use the prescribed water.
“At the end of the prayers, Alfa Maruf asks to know the next appointment date the ‘doctor’ provided me. I retrieve Iya Salimo’s card and have a look: Monday, May 30, 2022.
“When next you come, I’ll do some ‘work’ for you,” he says. “I’ll provide you a 25-litre keg of special water; you will bathe with it for three days. However, I’ll give you a smaller one today. This now, you’ll bathe with it at once. You’ll use it to wash your body into a big bowl, then you’ll pour it away.” he said.
As revealed by Fisayo, he was eventually made to pay the sum of N280,000 for the services rendered to him at the healing center.
“How much will this cost me?” I wonder. His reply is reminiscent of Alfa Ibadan’s initial we-don’t-charge-here retort, even though he later demanded a total of N280,000 from me.
“We don’t bill people money,” Alfa Maruf replies. “It is whatever you give us that we’ll accept.”
“For that day, I pay him N5,000, then add an extra N1,000 for the four litre keg with which he would fetch this special water.” he added.