The Delta State Police Command has arrested a 17-year-old girl, Chiamaka, for allegedly orchestrating her own abduction and collecting N500,000 ransom from her mother.
The state Commissioner of Police, Aina Adesola, is said to be overseeing the case.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Bright Edafe, disclosed the development in a video shared on his Facebook page.
Edafe said the suspect, an SSS 3 student, connived with three friends to execute the plan.
According to him, the teenager left Ugolo for Port Harcourt, where they lodged in a hotel and initiated contact with her mother, claiming she had been kidnapped.
“She called her mother from Port Harcourt, alleging she had been abducted and demanded a ransom,” Edafe said.
He explained that the girl’s mother, a widowed peasant farmer, reportedly struggled to raise the money, moving from one person to another to gather the N500,000 demanded for her daughter’s release. While trying to secure the funds, she alerted the police.
“Our investigation revealed that it was not a genuine kidnapping,” Edafe stated, adding that intelligence gathered by operatives exposed the plot.
The suspect, who is currently in police custody, reportedly confessed to the crime.
In a video shared by the police, she admitted, “My friends and I planned that I should kidnap myself and collect money from my mother.”
She claimed she was influenced by the three friends, whom she had only recently met, insisting that she initially resisted the idea but later succumbed to pressure.
According to her, the money realised from the scheme was spent on clothing.
Edafe noted that cases of self-orchestrated abductions were becoming prevalent among youths aged between 15 and 20.
He added that one of the suspect’s friends had allegedly carried out a similar act in the past, which inspired the group to replicate the scheme.
The police said efforts were ongoing to apprehend the other accomplices involved in the incident.