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.
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