By Desire Emmanuel
A young man who was said to have faked his own kidnap, demanded the sum of N35 million from his relatives as ransom has told men of the Enugu State Police Command that he did so because his uncle refused to buy a tricycle for him for commercial purpose.
The state police command disclosed in a statement on Monday, December 1, that operatives attached to the Trans-Ekulu Divisional Headquarters arrested the man, Chibuike Joshua Ugwuja, aged 26, after he returned home when his relatives refused to pay the ransom demanded by him.
It was gathered that his father had, on November 25 reported at the Division that his son, who works as a private security guard in an estate in Trans-Ekulu, left for work on November 22 and failed to return home.
He further disclosed that his son sent a message on the social media platform, Facebook, to their female neighbour, claiming that he was abducted by unknown persons in a commercial bus and that his supposed abductors were the ones demanding the ransom.
However, while investigations and efforts to locate and rescue him were ongoing, he was brought to the police station by his father on Sunday, November 30, as the father added that the son just returned home from where he was supposedly kidnapped.
The command wrote: “Upon interrogation, he confessed to staging his own kidnapping, saying that after closing from work, he went to the residence of a friend at Amorji Nike, Enugu, rather than returning home, and from there masterminded the kidnap.
“He added that demanded ₦35 million from his family but eventually returned home after his ransom demands were not met, attributing his actions to frustration over his uncle’s refusal to buy a tricycle for him for commercial purpose.”
He was said to have been taken into custody and will be arraigned in court after the conclusion of the investigations into his nefarious activities.
