Great touch of destiny

What would make a mother use her own son for a money-making ritual? That was the story of young and handsome Ifeoluwa Gbadegoye, whose mother was so desperate to get rich by all means and wanted to join the moneybags and belong to the millionaires’ club either by hook or crook.

That early morning, Mrs. Risi Gbadegoye lied to her husband that she was traveling to Ogun State to see her mother. He believed her wholeheartedly, thinking his wife was saying the truth, unknown to him that she was actually travelling to a remote village in the thick forest of Ekiti State to consult a powerful, old juju man skilled in potent voodoo, particularly money-making rituals.

Pronto, Mrs. Gbadegoye was already in Adanyeye village in a very interior part of Ekiti State, where the frail-looking old herbalist lived. On that very day, there were scores of important personalities from afar who came to the shrine of the grand old man bearing the sobriquet, ‘Ikubaba Agba,’ to see him for all myriads of problems.

When it was the turn of the brown-skinned, tall, plump and beautiful Mrs. Gbadegoye to see the specially-skilled herbalist, she was ushered in quickly. No matter your status, you must take off your shoes or sandals when in the presence of the powerful herbalist. So, she took off her shoes and sat down anxiously in front of the aged juju man.

After greeting the old man, Mrs. Gbadegoye explained in detail what brought her to seek his help. “I need money badly baba, and I can do anything to be rich,” she said confidently.

“Even if you seal your lips and refuse to talk, I know your problems young woman,” Ikubaba Agba replied in a shaky voice while adjusting the white calabash containing rituals beside him.

“Orisha e gba mi, nothing is hidden to the gods,” he continued his long speech. “ I can see through you. I know all you don’t know. I have drunk the lion’s blood, I have chewed the crocodile’s teeth and swallowed death itself. I will make you a potion and you will walk in ease into a refuge of roaches. I am the master of coincidence and the very last problem, solver.

“Take these three cowries,” the herbalist said to Mrs. Gbadegoye. “Put them under the pillow of your only son while he is fast asleep. Once you can place them under his pillow and he wakes up the following morning, you will start basking in millions. Don’t doubt the power of the gods, but your child will become a useless imbecile, like a complete handicap throughout his life. You have to renew this voodoo every seven years.

“All you need to do to renew it is to find an imbecile or handicap to sleep with you. Then multimillions of money would keep rolling in from the four corners of the world. Orisha, e gba mi!”

“Thank you very much, Ikubaba Agba,” Mrs. Gbadegoye said excitedly, as she took the three white cowries from the frail-looking octogenarian herbalist and left. In a twinkling of an eye, the woman was back in Lagos.

She did as instructed and before the mention of ‘cash,’ she had become a multimillionaire, even in hard currencies. Her 21-year-old only son, Ifeoluwa, who was a 200-level Accounting student in the university suddenly developed a strange illness and became an imbecile and handicapped. When all hope seemed lost, the young man became a cab driver and everybody loved him, despite his health challenges. Out of pity, his grandma adopted him and he started living with her.

Risi was now a super-rich woman and spent money like there was no tomorrow and as if money was going out of fashion.