Ebonyi: Teen Fakes Kidnap, Demands N2M Ransom

1. In Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, a 16-year-old SS2 student from a private secondary school has been apprehended for masterminding a fake kidnapp to extort N2 million from her family. The Ebonyi State Police Command revealed that the teenager collaborated with a family friend to execute the scheme.
   According to Mr. Joshua Ukandu, the State Police Public Relations Officer, the student claimed she went to a family friend’s house in town, who didn’t know that she was already reported missing. “According her, on getting to town, she decided to go to the house of one of their family friends who was not aware of her missing,” Ukandu said.
   “With the man’s phone, she chatted her brother and told him that she was kidnapped and that they (her family) would pay N2 million ransom before her release. So, the brother requested that she give the phone to those that kidnapped her so that he can bargain with them and know the location to bring the ransom but she refused and blocked her brother’s line,” Ukandu further explained.
   The brother requested an account number for a digital transfer of the ransom, to which the girl collected and sent the account number of the same family friend hosting her whose phone she had been using to chat the family since her “kidnap”. The family used this evidence, to alert the police, who stormed his house and arrested them.

The police arrested the student and others at the residence as well. “We are still investigating just to be sure because there were other people in that house that night. She slept there two nights. While she was going out to buy something, her family members who were already suspicious and laying ambush there saw her and the police arrested them. We are still investigating, particularly their family friend who harbored her, gave her his phone and account number to receive ransom,” Ukandu added.
The teenager has been reunited with her family, but the investigation continues due to her age. The police are probing the involvement of the family friend and others present at the house, emphasizing the need to clarify the extent of their complicity