Boy fakes own kidnap allegedly to steal employer’s N.5m

Men of the Ogun State police command have arrested an 18-year-old man, Adeboye Michael, and two of his friends, Nafiu Ojo and Abdullahi Lawal, for allegedly faking his kidnap in order to steal his employer’s money.

The arrest of the trio followed a complaint lodged at the Oke-Itoku police station by one Oluwoju Ojo Abiodun, who reported that he had sent his apprentice, Adeboye Michael, to a bank to deposit the sum of N500,000 only for him to receive a call after some hours that the boy had been kidnapped.

The complainant told the police that the caller ordered him to send the sum of N1 million for Michael to be released, with an instruction that he only needed to add N500,000 to the N500,000 he had given his apprentice to deposit at the bank and the so-called kidnappers had collected from him.

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the incident, said upon the report, the case was transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping section in Eleweran after a preliminary investigation at Oke-Itoku.

Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent, said that detectives subsequently embarked on an investigation, and when the suspects discovered that their game would soon be up, Michael suddenly emerged, with fabricated tales on his fake abduction.

He added that two days later, on December 13, 2018, the so-called abductors, Nafiu Ojo and Abdullahi Lawal, were tracked down and apprehended.

“On interrogation, they narrated how 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, Michael was arrested. He made a confessional statement that he only lodged in an hotel with two girls where he squandered his boss money that he was supposed to deposit at the bank. The leftover of N120,000, being part of the money, was recovered from him” the PPRO said.

He said that the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, had directed that the suspect be arraigned before a court as soon as investigation was concluded.