A man living in Delta State, Michael James, has explained why he allegedly faked his own kidnapping in an attempt to extort N25 million from his family.
In an interrogation video shared on Sunday by the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, James said he staged the incident because he had spent money he owed his brother and sister and had no way to repay them.
According to him, on July 1, he was sent to dispose of refuse, but instead of returning home, he left his wheelbarrow behind and hid in a nearby bush.
“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 said he later contacted his mother again, claiming his supposed abductors were assaulting him and demanding a payment of N700,000.
He added that he became alarmed after his mother informed him that the police and local vigilantes had begun searching for him.
As rain approached later that day, he said he left the bush on a motorcycle for another location before calling his family to claim he had escaped from his captors.
“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.
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.”
Commenting on the case, Bright Edafe said the Delta State Police Command acted promptly after receiving the kidnapping report by deploying digital intelligence to track James’s location.
“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.”
The police spokesperson noted that the incident is not an isolated case, as some individuals have exploited the country’s kidnapping crisis by staging fake abductions to extort money from relatives.
A similar case was reported on June 9 when the Ogun State Police Command arrested eight foreign nationals in Adiyan, Agbado, for allegedly orchestrating a self-kidnapping scheme to extort money from family members abroad. Police said investigations established that the reported abduction had been staged as part of an extortion plot.