Two teenage girls have been arrested by operatives of the Ondo State Security Network Agency which is also known as the Amotekun Corps for allegedly feigning being kidnapped.
The duo (names withheld) were nabbed after locking themselves inside a hotel room in the Akoko area of the state and demanded ransom from their parents for their release.
Mr Adetunji Adeleye, the Commander of the Amotekun Corps, disclosed this on Monday while parading the teenagers with over 20 other suspects before newsmen in Akure, the state capital.
Adeleye said the girls, one 13 and the other 15 years old, hid themselves and demanded a ransom of N100,000 from their mother after faking their abduction.
He added that the two girls also threatened the monarch of the town to pay the ransom within 24 hours or ‘they would kill the abductees in their custody.’
The Amotekun Corps boss, who also doubles as the Special Adviser, Security Matters to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, said that the teenagers were nabbed through a joint operation with the operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) after tracking the telephone line being used by the girls.
In an interrogation with journalists, the youngest of the two sisters said they spent a night in their grandma’s house and left there around 6:00 am after they had left the house.
“We left the house because my mother used to behave to us as if she is not the one that gave birth to me and decided to collect money from her,” she said.
Parading other suspects, Mr Adeleye listed them as suspected cult members, burglars, kidnappers, and armed robbers, among several others. He revealed that among them was a woman, Ms Ajara Salamatu, supplying food to kidnappers inside the forest.
The Amotekun Corps boss also said the operatives nabbed hostage takers, who allegedly raped their victims for three consecutive days in their hiding place in Ilaje Local Government Area of the state adding that some other suspects were arrested during intense joint raiding of the forests in Owo, Ifon and Akoko areas of the state to dislodge kidnappers hiding in the forests.
He disclosed that many ATM cards were found in the possession of some of the suspects and they could not explain how they came about them. According to him, the ATM cards were suspected to belong to the various victims they kidnapped in the past.
