The Lagos State Police Command has apprehended a 26-year-old housewife, Misturah Bada, and her alleged accomplice, Adedamola Daniel, over claims that she orchestrated her own abduction and extorted N2.5 million from her husband based in South Africa.
The suspects were arrested by operatives of the Command’s Special Squad for offences linked to false kidnapping, conspiracy, and extortion.
According to a statement issued by the state police spokesperson, Abimbola Adebisi, the incident was reported on November 24 when the command received a distress call from Bada’s husband, who claimed his wife had been abducted by armed men demanding a ransom of N10 million, later reduced to N3 million.
“A sum of N2.5 million was subsequently paid by the husband, an innocent Nigerian resident in South Africa, yet the supposed kidnappers refused to release the victim,” the statement said.
Following the report, the police deployed both human and technical resources to trace the alleged kidnappers.
Bada was later “released and reunited with her family” and subsequently invited for debriefing by the police.
During questioning, she told investigators that “she was kidnapped by six armed men driving a silver Toyota Venza”, taken to their hideout, and relieved of her iPhone 12 Pro Max.
She further claimed that the ransom paid by her husband was first transferred into her bank account before being handed over to the kidnappers.
However, police said deeper investigations uncovered “several inconsistencies” in her narrative.
“On 3 December 2025, operatives arrested Adedamola Daniel in the Ede area of Osun State. A SIM card used to register the WhatsApp account through which ransom negotiations were conducted was recovered from him,” the statement noted.
“During interrogation, he confessed that the suspect Misturah Bada had requested the use of his SIM card to open the WhatsApp account used for the ransom negotiations and that he provided the OTP sent to his line, which enabled her to successfully operate the account.”
Police further disclosed that Bada was confronted with the findings and “admitted to faking her own kidnapping in order to extort money from her husband”.
“Further investigation led to the recovery of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which Mrs. Bada had earlier claimed was with the kidnappers. The phone was recovered from Yusuf Sodiq, aged 34, who admitted that he purchased the phone from her at the rate of ₦380,000, having been warned not to insert any SIM card into it at the time,” the statement added.
The police said investigations are ongoing and that both suspects will be charged to court once inquiries are concluded.