Lagos Police Arrest Teenage Girl, Accomplice for Staging Own Kidnap …I staged my kidnap to raise money to repay N350,000 loan

 

The Lagos State Police have arrested Dorcas Adilewa, 19, for allegedly masterminding her kidnap and demanding N600, 000 ransom from her father to raise money to repay the loan her mother took from a micro-finance bank.

According to the Dorcas, who was paraded alongside her accomplice, Ifeoluwa Ogunbanjo, 20, at the Police Command Ikeja on Monday, she had told her mother that she was travelling to see a friend in Ogun State before calling her father with Ogunbanjo’s phone number requesting for the ransom.

 Dorcas said the decision to plot her own kidnap was fuelled by the desire to raise money to further her education and also help her mother repay a loan she had collected from a cooperative.

Speaking to journalists, Dorcas said: "I went to Ifeoluwa's place and I had borrowed money from my mum to transport myself there. My family’s situation led me into the plans. My father has liver problem and my mum had collected a loan from corporative which she has been finding difficult to repay.

"My aunty, who always rescued my family, died recently. After writing my UTME examination, I needed money to pursue my admission. Even where I work (Bet Naija), I’m owed for three month.”

Accordingly, the teenager stated that after she called her uncle for financial help, which he turned down, she devised the strategy to fake her own kidnap to help her mother repay her loan.

“I had called my friend earlier that I was coming to her place. The plan was to stay at her place, call my father that I was kidnapped and requested for N600, 000 as ransom to help my mother repay her loan.

"I knew if my uncle heard I was kidnapped, he would definitely raise the money for the ransom.  But unfortunately, I was arrested. My friend didn't know anything about my plans, she wasn't part of it,” she stated.

Speaking on how the suspects were arrested, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, said Dorcas’s father, Adilewa Taiwo of No.3, Kosumi Lane, Bello-Ketu, Lagos, reported at Ketu police station that on July 12 this year at 3 p.m., his daughter had called to informed him of her kidnap.

The CP said: "Her father was at Odogbolu in Ogun State attending a burial rite when he received a call from phone number 09057432362. The case was immediately transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Section (SCIID), Panti for discreet investigation.

"The O/C Anti-kidnapping led his operatives to Ijebu-Igbo and combed the area in search of the supposed victim. While the search was ongoing at Ijebu-Igbo, the location of the supposed kidnappers changed to Ikotun in Lagos, and the search party had to move from Ijebu-Igbo to IKotun in Lagos to rescue the victim."

Edgal further revealed that when the fake kidnappers realised that the police were closing in on them, Dorcas decided to call her father to inform him that she has been released after he had deposited N8,000 in her UBA's account number: 2087804991.

"When the said Dorcas was being debriefed upon her release, she confessed by revealing that she actually planned with her friend, one Ifeoluwa Ogunbanjo, who provided her with accommodation at No. 174, Adeboye road, Okesopin, Ijebu Igbo in Ogun State to hide, as well as the phone that they used in demanding the ransom of N600, 000. Her reason was to extort money from her father," she said.

Narrating her own side of the story, Ifeoluwa denied any involvement in the crime saying: “Dorcas called me on July 12 that she was at my bus stop at Ijebu-Igbo. I asked why she didn’t call me before coming, she then told me she was kidnapped and taken to Akure and that she had escaped and decided to come to my place to recuperate.

"When my mother heard her story, she insisted Dorcas passed the night and continue he journey the next day.  That night, Dorcas requested for my phone which I gave her to make a call. She went outside to make the call and when she returned the phone, she had deleted all the dialed calls.”

Ifeoluwa denied knowing that Dorcas called her father. “She used a day to carry out the whole act. I have only known her for six months from the church and didn’t know she was capable of such. She just implicated me.”

Edgal further assured the public that investigation is in progress and on completion, suspects would be charged to court accordingly.