Lagos barber goes mad after using native soap

If Sunday Victor Obamotula had known that his quest for quick fortune would end up with him losing his sanity, he would have rejected the overture to go for money rituals in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State. But the 34-year-old barber, who was plying his trade in Ojota area of Lagos, opted for a traditional ritual to boost his business fortune and suffered mental illness thereafter.

Sunday has since become a burden to his distraught mother and siblings after losing his senses in the aftermath of bathing with a black soap given to him by an an Ifa priest.

His mother, Madam Bernice Alake Sanni, a resident of No 35 Oko-Oba Road, Agege, Lagos, said she found that her eldest son had visited her younger sister in Ijebu Igbo, whose husband lured him to undergo Ifa rituals for prosperity, adding that she stopped her eldest son, Kayode Sanni, from continuing with the rituals after he had paid a lot of money to the man called Idowu Onabanjo a.k.a. Orlando.

“Without my knowledge, my second son, Sunday Obamotula, suddenly started patronising the same Orlando and had visited Ijebu Igbo for the same fortune making rituals. He had gone too far with the man before I knew what was happening,” she said.

Madam Sanni said her son was given a native soap to bath with and that it was after the bath that his mental illness started and has defied cure to date.

“My son told me that he was handed over to an aged woman who said they would do his rituals 50-50.

“He said he was given a soap to to bathe with, and that after using the soap on June 1, 2022, he began to lose his sanity.”

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Sunday’s older brother, Kayode Sanni, said he was almost lured by the same Ifa priest into the ritual that has shattered his younger brother’s life, asking the public to come to the aid of his family.

He said: “I have come to beg Nigerians to come to the aid of my aged mother and our family to save my brother, Sunday Sanni, from his current predicament.

“My younger (half) brother has been suffering from mental illness since he went to Ijebu Igbo where he was given a native soap to bathe with.

“It happened that around the year 2020, our mother took us to visit her sister at Ijebu Igbo, and our visit coincided with an Ifa festival organised by the husband of our mother’s sister.

“While we were there, he asked us to consider being initiated into the Ifa divinity, arguing that our lives could witness a turnaround if we did.

“I backed out of the preparation for the rituals after giving the sum of N200,000 to the man and he was still asking for more money and shifting the date of the initiation.

“As I speak, the man has not fully refunded the money he collected from me.

“However, my younger half- brother, Sunday Obamotula, went behind me and visited the Ijebu Igbo home of the Ifa priest.

“On a certain day, we received a distress telephone call from Ijebu Igbo to come pick my brother.

“The caller explained that my brother had suffered a mental disorder.

“Sunday told us that he was given a black native soap to bathe with and that his mental illness started as soon as he bathed with the soap.

“Since then, we have been battling with his mental sickness and his father had even visited Ijebu Igbo to seek solution to his mental illness, all to no avail.

“His father struggled to bring him home from Ijebu Igbo and we have taken him to many churches and different spiritual homes for healing but all the efforts have not yielded any fruit as his mental infirmity persists.

“He claimed afterwards that nothing was wrong with him, but we know that he is mentally unfit, because some times he would talk normally and at other times he would exhibit mental disorder when talking with people.

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“He can sometimes be violent and would speak incoherently like an insane person. He would say that some mystery persons were appearing to him, asking him to eat human faeces and waste.

“We have tried to call the Ifa priest, who is also an artiste. He tried to strangle our mother recently, and if not for the intervention of the people around, he would have killed our mother.

“We are calling on the public to assist us in resolving the dilemma surrounding my brother’s mental illness as the person who allegedly gave him the native soap has refused to respond to our calls.”

Recalling his travails, Sunday explained that he deliberately approached the said Orlando for business fortune propitiation. He said his sickness was nothing to worry about, adding that his family members were unnecessarily disturbed by it.

He said: “My mother and siblings are unnecessarily worried about my ill health, but there is nothing to worry about in my condition.

“I went there (Ijebu Igbo) to do business and I fell sick there. It was just malaria and I have been treated.”

In another breath, Sunday said he purposely visited the traditionalist in Ijebu Igbo for the rituals to boost his business fortune.

 He said: “I was the one that went there for a spiritual propitiation that could boost my business fortune as a barber and hair stylist.

“I was asked to come to Ijebu Igbo to help set up and manage a salon.

“We had bought all the goods to set up our office when we were accosted by policemen, and when they saw the tattoos on my body, they wanted to use that against me.

“But I told the policemen that having tattoos on my body is not a crime and does not portray anyone wearing them as a criminal. Hence, the policemen let go of me.”

“The name of the person that handled the propitiation for me is Idowu aka Orlando,

“He is a musician cum Ifa priest.

“I was the one that called my parents on the phone to come pick me up after I fell sick and my condition worsened.

“I used to smoke cannabis but I have stopped; I only smoke cigarettes now.”

Efforts made by the reporter to get Onabanjo’s reaction were futile, as he was said to have gone into hiding.

But his wife, Adebisi Asani Onabanjo, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, said the allegation against her husband was untrue.

She described the matter as a case of turning a helper into an enemy unjustifiably and accused Sunday’s mother of being frivolous in her accusations.

Adebisi said: “May God not allow people you helped to turn your benevolence against you. I say this prayer because that is exactly what happened in the case you mentioned.

”There is no allegation that my sister, Sunday’s mother, has not leveled against other family members. She picks issues with people unnecessarily and that is her style.