- The girls pretended to be kidnapped and contacted their mother, demanding a sum of N100,000 as ransom.
- They also threatened the town’s monarch, posing as kidnappers, to pay the ransom within 24 hours or face harm to the abductees
Amotekun, the ondo state security network agency, has apprehended a total of 28 individuals involved in various criminal activities across different areas of the state.
Among the alleged offenders were two female students from secondary school who were detained by the agency for orchestrating a false kidnapping scheme and extorting money from their mother.
Presenting the suspects to the public at the command headquarters in Akure, the capital city, on monday, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, the commander of the corps in the state, disclosed that the two girls, aged 13 and 15, respectively, were in junior secondary school (jss) 1 and jss 3.
As per the commander’s account, the perpetrators concealed themselves at Oka-Akoko in Akoko south-west local government area and proceeded to contact their mother, assuming the role of kidnappers. they demanded a ransom of N100,000.
Adeleye further revealed that the girls, posing as kidnappers, called and issued threats to the monarch of their town, coercing him to pay the ransom within 24 hours under the threat of harm to the abductees in their custody.
He said, “The 28 suspects we are parading today (monday) shows that we have more kidnapping than any other criminal activities. this is in continuation of our efforts at ensuring that kidnapping in ondo state becomes a thing of the past.
“We have people who kidnapped themselves and raised alarm and in our diligent investigations, we were able to unravel the mystery surrounding their disappearance to the extent that they have confessed.”
The amotekun boss noted that the arrest of the suspects was in collaboration with the operatives of the department of state security as the telephone line being used by the girls was tracked to where they were.
Speaking, one of the girls, who confessed to the crime, said it was her elder sister that lured her to it.
The 13-year-old said, “On that day, my sister and i spent the night in our grandma’s place and left there around 6:00 am the following day. while on our way back home, my (elder) sister told me that she had a plan to get money from our mother.
“She then revealed her plan to declare ourselves kidnapped and asked for N50,000 each ransom from our mother. it was my sister who taught me what to say when they put a call through to my mother.
“When we called we didn’t know that it was the monarch that was speaking with us on the phone and we threatened to kill our victims in captivity if they failed to pay the ransom quickly.”