A 19-year-old identified as Dorcas Adilewa has been arrested by the Police Command in Lagos State for planning her kidnap to defraud her father.
The suspect hatched the plan in connivance with one Ifeoluwa Ogunbanjo, her friend, who provided location and a phone to contact her parents.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, said that the suspects were arrested on July 13 following a report by the suspect's father.
"On July 7 at about 5 p.m., Adilewa Taiwo reported at Ketu Police Station that he received a call from phone number 09057432362.
"He was told that his daughter, Dorcas Adilewa, was being held hostage and that if he does not want her killed, he should pay a ransom of N600,000 to secure her release.
"Investigation into the case was immediately commenced and the above phone number that was used by the suspects was geo-located to Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State.
"The O/C Anti-Kidnapping led his operatives to Ijebu-Igbo on July 12 and combed the area in search of the supposed victim till the following morning"
The commissioner said that while the search was ongoing at Ijebu-Igbo, the location of the supposed kidnappers changed to Ikotun in Lagos.
"When the fake kidnappers realised that the Police were closing in on them, the supposed victim decided to call the complainant to inform him that she has been released, after he had deposited the sum of N8,000 naira in her UBA account number: 2087804991."
Imohimi said that when Adilewa was being debriefed upon her release, she confessed that she actually planned the fake kidnap with her friend, one Ogunbanjo.
"She provided her with accommodation at No. 174, Adeboye road, Okesopin, Ijebu Igbo in Ogun State to hide and the phone that they used in demanding for the ransom."
However, Dorcas said she needed the money to pay her school fee.
She said, "When the payment of my school fee was delayed, I went to my friend's (Ogunbanjo) place, where I called my father.
"I was at her place on Thursday and I went back home on Friday when my dad said he could not afford the money."
But her alleged accomplice, Ogunbanjo said she was not aware of the kidnap plan, adding that she accommodated Dorcas at her parents' house because Dorcas told her she had escaped from kidnappers.
She also said she gave Dorcas her phone to call her father because she said she needed transport fare to go home.
Ogunbanjo said, "It was because she used my phone to call that the police came to Ijebu. What she told me was that she entered kidnappers bus and that when she escaped, she came to Ijebu Ode.
"When she came, my mum entertained her and the next day, my mum gave her N500. She needed additional N500 to complete the N1,000 she needed to transport herself home. So she said she wanted to use my phone to call her daddy so she can tell him to send her some money to transport herself. So I gave her, not knowing that she was using it to demand money from her daddy.
"She asked for my bank account number and I said I did not have. So, I went to meet someone beside my mummy's shop to collect an account number. It is God that saved me that she did not use that person's account number. I never knew that her daddy had sent N8,000 into her account and she did not tell me anything."
The CP said investigation was in progress and on completion, suspects would be charged to court.
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