ASABA – The Delta State Police Command has apprehended a 17-year-old girl, identified as Chiamaka, for allegedly staging her own abduction alongside three friends and extorting a ransom of five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) from her mother, a struggling peasant farmer.
- The suspect, who is currently in police custody, was paraded by the command following her confession to the crime.
The police described the act as a troubling trend among youths seeking quick money.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, who disclosed the details in a video posted on his Facebook page, the teenager—a Senior Secondary School (SSS 3) student—hatched the plan with her accomplices.
Confessing to the crime, Chiamaka admitted, “Me and my friends planned to kidnap myself and collect money from my mother.”
However, she claimed that the three friends, whom she had only recently met, pressured her into the scheme.
“I didn’t want to do that. It’s because of my friends; they forced me to do it,” she said.
When questioned about the ransom money, she revealed, “The money, N500,000, we used it to buy clothes.”
SP Edafe provided further details of the bizarre incident, explaining that the suspect and her three friends left their community of Ugolo and travelled to Port Harcourt, where they lodged in a hotel while maintaining the pretence of a kidnapping.
“The mother, who is a widow and of very modest means, went around collecting the money to secure her release,” SP Edafe said.
“During this process, she reported the incident to the police, and our investigation suggested it was not an actual kidnapping.”
He noted that such cases were becoming increasingly common among young people.
“Cases like this often involve youths between the ages of 15 and 20. In this instance, the 17-year-old said one of her friends had previously done the same to her mother—kidnapping themselves to extort money. She and her friends decided to replicate the same scheme.”
The police have launched a manhunt for the three accomplices, who are currently at large. Investigations are ongoing.
