° They demanded N150m from parents
Two undergraduate have been arrested by the Police in Lagos for allegedly faking their own kidnap with the aim of extorting huge amount of money from their parents.
The suspects allegedly demanded the whooping sum of 100,000 Dollars( N150 million).
Lagos State Public Relations Officer(PPRO), SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest, saying that the suspects also demanded 100,000 Dollars (about N150 million) ransom from their parents.
He gave the names of the suspects as : Ayodele Balogun, 21, a 200 level student of Education Department of the Lagos State University, Ijaniki and his accomplice ,Dennis Okuomo, 21, a student of NIIT Lagos.
“It was Dennis’s idea, because Ayodele is from a poor family and his friend;said : he wanted to use it to raise money for him so that he can be able to take care of his family.”
The command’s spokesman said that on February . 2, Ayodele disappeared from home, while Dennis used his (Ayodele)’s phone to inform his father, Mr Balogun, of his son’s faked kidnap and demanded 20,000 dollars (about N30 million) ransom.
Hundeyin said that the suspects had directed Ayodele’s father to pay the ransom through Bitcoin, which wallet they have sent to him while Ayodele was hiding in Dennis’s room in his (Dennis’s) father’s hotel.
“Ayodele’s father, a driver with a private company, received the message with many worries, wondering where to raise 20,000 Dollars.”
Hundeyin said, when Balogun could not raise the money, Dennis decided to also fake his own kidnap and demanded for 100,000 Dollars (about N150 million) from his own father.
According him, both suspects decided to leave the hotel to hide in a bush and remained there for five days while the negotiation and investigation were ongoing.
“On March 16, as no money was paid and the suspects were not comfortable with the condition of the bush, they decided to return to Dennis’ s room in his father’s hotel.
“They told everybody that they just escaped from kidnapper’s den, and quickly called Ayodele’s father to inform about their purported escape from kidnapper’s den.
” They took Ayodele to the hospital believing that he just came from kidnapper’s den.
“Investigation so far revealed that the suspects faked their own kidnap .
“They are in our custody, two perpetrators of self kidnap,” he noted
