Police arrest 2 who faked their kidnap, demanded $100,000 from parents

Two friends, simply identified as Dennise Okuonu and Ayodele Balogun, have been arrested for allegedly faking their own kidnap.

The suspects had demanded about $100,000 from their parents as ransom, threatening that failure of which might lead to their execution.

The police identified Dennise Okuonu, an undergraduate student of the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) as the mastermind of the plot.

On his part, Ayodele, a 200-level student of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (ACOED), Ijanikin, had allegedly agreed to the plans to extort money from his father.

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City & Crime learnt that Dennise had arranged the fake kidnap of Ayodele as a way to raise some money for him.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the incident, said Dennise perfected the plans to help his friend, Ayodele, to raise some money.

Hundeyin said Dennise proceeded to send text messages, using his phone to Ayodele’s father, who happens to be a driver.

Hundeyin said initially, the two had allegedly demanded the sum of $10,000 as ransom for the release of Ayodele.

“He said the money should be paid into his Binance account using Bitcoin. He also sent a Bitcoin wallet for the payment to Ayodele’s father.

“While Ayodele’s father was making frantic efforts to get his son release from the supposed kidnappers, Dennise lodged Ayodele in a room at his father’s hotel.

“Both friends went to a bush in the area where Ayodele’s photograph was taken with his hands and leg tied to make it real. The picture was later sent to Ayodele’s father.

“To raise more money, Dennise also faked his own kidnap and raising the ransom to $100,000. With this new trend, the two moved out of the hotel.

“To further threaten Ayodele’s father, Dennise, probably with the help of others, took pictures of Ayodele father’s place of work and insisted that Ayodele would be killed if the money was not paid,” he added.

He said investigation was still ongoing and that the suspects would be charged to court thereafter.