By Desire Emmanuel
An 18-year-old teenage girl has been arrested by men of the Edo State Police Command after she staged her own kidnap and demanded the sum of N10 million as ransom from her family.
The girl, Obehi Odine, was arrested by the operatives attached to the Ekpoma Divisional Headquarters after her family members reported a case of kidnap of their daughter which was later found to be a hoax.
According to the state police command in a statement on Tuesday, January 13, the report indicated that the girl was abducted along Old INEC Road, Ekpoma, around noon on January 12 and her whereabouts became unknown.
The report added that the supposed kidnappers contacted the family through phone and demanded the sum of N10 million before she could be released.
After receiving the report, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) was said to have deployed operational resources to track the caller.
The technical intelligence and field investigations led to the arrest of the girl, which later revealed that it was a case of self-kidnapping.
The command wrote: “The suspect was arrested for staging her own kidnapping and demanding a ransom of N10 million. She has confessed to the crime, admitting that the incident was deliberately fabricated to extort money from her family.”
She was said to have given more useful information to the operatives regarding those who likely conspired with her to carry out the kidnapping.
She will also be charged to court at the conclusion of the investigation.
