Officials of the Nigerian Police from the Ogun State Command have arrested an 18-year-old apprentice identified as Adeboye Michael, for allegedly faking his own kidnap in order to swindle his boss of N500,000 meant to be deposited in a bank.
According to a report by PUNCH, the suspect who was said to have lodged himself in a hotel and squandered the money on girls, was arrested alongside his friends, Nafiu Ojo and Abdullahi Lawal, who were said to have posed as his abductors and demanded N1m ransom.
In a statement released in Abeokuta on Tuesday, the Police Public Relations Officer for the command, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said that the suspects were arrested following a complaint by Michael’s boss, Oluwoju Abiodun, at the Oke-Itoku Police Station.
The PPRO stated that the intention of the suspects was to extort money from Abiodun.
Oyeyemi said Michael’s boss went to the police station and reported that he sent his apprentice to a bank to deposit the sum of N500,000 in his account, only for him to receive a call some hours after that the young man had been kidnapped and that he (Abiodun) should provide the sum of N1m for his release.
According to the PPRO, Abiodun stated that the supposed kidnappers told him that he only needed to pay them the balance since the sum of N500,000 he asked Michael to deposit in the bank had already been collected.
Oyeyemi added, “Upon the report, the case was transferred to the anti-kidnapping section in Eleweran after a preliminary investigation at Oke-Itoku.
“The men of the anti-kidnapping section subsequently embarked on a technical investigation and when the suspects discovered that their game would soon be up, the supposed victim emerged with different stories on his fake abduction.
“Unknown to him the police were on the trail of his so-called abductors; two days after, the duo of Nafiu Ojo and Abdullahi Lawal were tracked down and apprehended on December 13, 2018.
“Upon interrogation, they narrated how Adeboye Michael contracted them to act as kidnappers and put a call through to his boss in order to make away with the N500,000 in his possession.
“Upon their confession, the said Adeboye Michael was subsequently arrested. He made a confessional statement that he lodged in a hotel with two girls, where he squandered his boss’ money, which he was supposed to deposit in the bank. The sum of N120,000 was recovered from him.”
Oyeyemi said the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, had directed that the suspects be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction as soon as the investigation was concluded.