Police arrest 2 students for alleged self-kidnap

The Police Command in Lagos State says it has arrested two students for allegedly faking their own kidnapping.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest to the newsmen on Thursday in Lagos.

Hundeyin further said that the suspects also demanded $100,000 (about N150 million) in ransom from their parents.

He gave the names of the suspects as Ayodele Balogun, 21, a 200-level student of education at Lagos State University, Ijaniki, and his friend, Dennis Okuomo, 21, a student of NIIT Lagos.

According to him, both faked their kidnapping and demanded N150 million to assist their friend, Ayodele, who is from a poor family.

“It was Dennis’s idea because Ayodele is from a poor family and his best friend; he wanted to use it to raise money for him so that he could take care of his family.”

The command’s spokesman said that on Feb. 2, Ayodele disappeared from home, while Dennis used his (Ayodele's) phone to inform his father, Mr. Balogun, of his son’s faked kidnapping and demanded a $20,000 (about N30 million) ransom.

Hundeyin said that the suspects had directed Ayodele’s father to pay the ransom through Bitcoin, which wallet they had sent him while Ayodele was hiding in Dennis’s room in his father’s hotel.

“Ayodele’s father, a driver with a private company, received the message with many worries, wondering where to raise $20,000.”

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 to 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 kidnappers’ den, and quickly called Ayodele’s father to inform about their purported escape from kidnappers den.

”They took Ayodele to the hospital believing that he just came from the kidnappers' den.

“Investigation so far has revealed that the suspects faked their own kidnapping.

“They are in our custody, two perpetrators of self-kidnapping,” he noted.