A no less worrying dimension of the spates of abduction in the country in the recent, is the crime of staged kidnap.
Equally fueled by a selfish desire to extort money from innocent and unsuspecting individuals, a Delta man who has been nabbed for the alleged crime of staged kidnap, has provided an insight that is nonetheless shocking
“My name is Michael James. I am from Edo State, but I live in Delta State. I kidnapped myself. The reason I kidnapped myself was that I owed my sister and my brother, and I had already spent the money. I had no way of paying it back.
“On the 1st of this month, they asked me to go and throw away the trash. After throwing away the trash, I parked my wheelbarrow and entered the bush.
“After some time, my mum started calling me, but I did not answer. Later, I called my mum and told her that I had been kidnapped and that the kidnappers were demanding N25m. Then I ended the call.”
James, revealed this and more in an interrogation video shared yesterday, by the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe.
“They kept calling me, but I did not answer. Later, when I picked up, I told her that the kidnappers were flogging me and that she should transfer N700,000 to them.
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“They kept calling again, but I did not answer. When I later picked up, my mum told me that the police and vigilantes were already handling the matter and that they would rescue me.
“In the evening, I realised it was about to rain, so I took a motorcycle to another place. I then called them and told them that I had escaped from the kidnappers,” James narrated.
Edafe provided additional perspective to the staged kidnap:
“We received a distress call that he was kidnapped.
“The command embarked on digitally generated intelligence and trailed him to where he was allegedly being kept, only for the suspect to run out, claiming he escaped from the kidnappers.
“He later confessed that he kidnapped himself so he could extort his family the sum of N25m,” Edafe wrote.
Cami Ezenwa is a Writer, Editor, Publicist, Biographer and Journalism Trainer
He has worked with the Daily Times, Daily Independent, Financial Standard and Business Television to mention some.
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