Posted by DPA on
A Nigerian man has been arrested by police after the man apparently drowned his six-year-old son in a ritual meant to try to make money, police said Tuesday.
ABUJA (dpa) - A Nigerian man has been arrested by police after the man apparently drowned his six-year-old son in a ritual meant to try to make money, police said Tuesday.
The police said the incident happened in Asaba in southwestern Nigeria. They said the suspect, identified as Stephen Ogwe, 28, drowned his son in a river on the instructions of an herbalist who told him that with the aid of some other accompanying rituals, money would flow in.
Police said they were also detaining the 70-year-old herbalist, who allegedly prepared the charm used on the dead boy.
In police custody, Ogwe told journalists that he paid 154 dollars to the herbalist to prepare a powder which he used to hypnotise his son.
He said that the herbalist promised him he would become rich after administering the powder on any person of his choice, adding that he opted to use his own son because he did not want to spill "another person's blood but my own."
Some nearby anglers saw Ogwe while he was trying to bury the boy near the river and alerted the police.