The Delta State Police Command, led by CP Aina Adesola, has arrested a 17-year-old girl identified as Chiamaka, for faking her own kidnap with three of her friends and extorting a ransom of five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) from her mother, a peasant farmer.
Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, disclosed this in a video posted on his Facebook page.
At the time of this report, the suspect, an SSS 3 student, is in police custody.
The suspect confessed to the crime, saying, “Me and my friends planned to kidnap myself and collect money from my mother.”
Chiamaka said the three friends she had recently met pressured her into committing the crime. She added, “I didn’t want to do that. It’s because of my friends, they forced me to do it.”
According to Chiamaka, “The money, N500,000, we used it to buy clothes.”
Commenting on the matter, SP Edafe said the suspect, together with her three friends, planned her kidnap, left Ugolo for Port Harcourt, and lodged in a hotel.
“While there, she called her mother, claiming she had been kidnapped and demanded money.
“Her mother, who is a widow and of modest means, went around collecting the money to secure her release. During this process, she reported the incident to the police, and our investigation suggested it was not an actual kidnapping.
“Cases like this often involve youths between the ages of 15 and 20. In this instance, the 17-year-old said one of her friends had previously done the same to her mother, kidnapping themselves to extort money. She and her friends decided to replicate the same scheme.”
Delta: Police arrest 17-year-old girl for faking own kidnap, extorting N500,000 from mother
