A 54-year-old woman has landed in police net in Delta State after allegedly staging her own kidnap and demanding N15m ransom from her younger brother.
The woman reportedly told her brother that some men had abducted her and taken her into the bush, threatening to kill her if the ransom was not paid.
However, what appeared to be a genuine kidnapping turned out to be an alleged elaborate plot by the woman to extort money from her own family.
The Delta State Police Command said the case was reported at the Ogwashi-Uku Divisional Police Headquarters on October 23, 2026, prompting the Commissioner of Police to order an investigation by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit in Obu-Luku, Aniocha South Local Government Area.
Police operatives subsequently launched an intelligence-led investigation which exposed the alleged fake abduction and led to the woman’s arrest.
The police spokesman, in a video showing the suspect’s confession, expressed shock that a 54-year-old woman could allegedly stage her own kidnapping for financial gain.
He said the suspect claimed she had been held for 12 days while her brother was being pressured to pay N15m for her release.
In the video, the woman admitted to masterminding the incident, saying she called her brother after allegedly going out to buy medicine and told him she had been taken into the bush.
She confessed that she demanded N15m, warning that her abductors would kill her if the money was not paid.
Describing her action as the work of the devil, the suspect pleaded for forgiveness.
The police spokesman, however, disclosed that investigations had uncovered the alleged involvement of other accomplices in the plot.
He said the suspected collaborators were being tracked, assuring that they would also be arrested.
The police said the suspect was arrested before she could carry out her alleged plan to extort the N15m from her younger brother.
