Matilda Omonaiye/
The Enugu State Police Command has arrested a 26-year-old man, Chibuike Joshua Ugwuja, for allegedly faking his own kidnapping and demanding a ransom of N35 million from his family.
Ugwuja, a private security guard working in an estate at Trans-Ekulu, was declared missing on November 24 after his father reported at the Trans-Ekulu Police Division that his son had left for work two days earlier and failed to return home.
Police said the suspect also sent a Facebook message to a female neighbour, claiming that he had been abducted by unknown gunmen inside a commercial bus and that his captors were demanding a huge ransom for his release.
On the strength of the report, police operatives launched an intensive search-and-rescue operation across Enugu and surrounding areas to locate the supposed victim.
The investigation, however, took an unexpected turn on November 30 when Ugwuja’s father brought him to the police station.
“While investigations were ongoing, the suspect was produced by his father after days of rigorous search efforts by our operatives,” the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Daniel Ndukwe, said in a statement issued on Monday.
According to the command, Ugwuja confessed during interrogation that he staged the kidnapping himself.
Police said he disclosed that after closing from work, he went to stay with a friend in Amorji Nike, Enugu, from where he coordinated the false abduction narrative.
“He admitted to staging the kidnap and demanding N35,000,000 from his family,” Ndukwe said.
Investigators further revealed that the suspect returned home on November 29 after realising that his family could not raise the ransom he demanded.
The police spokesperson said Ugwuja blamed his actions on frustration, alleging that his uncle had failed to buy him a tricycle as promised.
The Enugu State Police Command added that the suspect would be charged to court upon the conclusion of investigations.
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