Segun Atanda/
In what is fast turning into a season of fake kidnappings, a businesswoman, Bukola Ogun, 37, has been arrested in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, for allegedly arranging her own kidnap to force her husband to relocate the family to the US.
Her case brings to three the reported cases of arranged kidnaps in the country inside this month alone. The previous two involved the traditional head of a Lagos community and an unemployed Lagos resident, Ufom Edet, both of whom attempted to collect ransom.
But in the latest case, the suspect claimed her intention was not to collect ransom but to use the arranged kidnap to create fear in the mind of her husband, Kayode, about the danger of their continued stay in the country.
The commissioner of police in the state, Abiodun Odude, who paraded the suspect, on Friday, said she conspired with three other persons, one of whom is her cousin, to perpetrate the act.
Odude said: “The Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the command arrested a businesswoman, who conspired with a three-man gang to orchestrate her own kidnap, in order to fraudulently obtain money from her husband.
“The incident happened on July 4, 2017, when three armed hoodlums stormed the residence of the supposed victim and kidnapped her. Barely four hours later, the suspects contacted the husband and demanded N10m for her release.
“The husband, who did not know that it was all arranged by his wife, contacted the police and a manhunt was launched for the hoodlums. Two male suspects were later arrested.”
He gave the name of the suspects as Kayode Adepoju and Olalekan Anafi.
Giving her own account, the lady said she committed the act to scare her husband, who has dual citizenship of Nigeria and the US.
She said when the idea first struck her, she told herself it was a joke. But something later told her it was worth trying out, adding that she was staying in a hotel during the period of her supposed abduction.
She stated: “I just woke up one day and thought of a way to make my husband see reason why he should use his American citizenship to take me and my children out of the country. It all started like child’s play.
“I told my supposed abductors to tell my husband that the ransom was N10m, although I knew he would not be able to pay such money. He is just a salary earner. He works with the Nigerian Stock Exchange. I lodged myself in a hotel and I was there for two days.
“I went back home on the third day and no ransom was paid.”
It was learned that the husband, who resided in the US for many years before returning home a few years ago, had already begun the process of relocating the family to the US, but the wife thought the process was too slow.
They couple’s six years old marriage is blessed with two children.
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