One Michael James, has been arrested in Delta State for faking his kidnap to extort N25m from his family.
James who was apprehended after his family reached out to the police to report his abduction, in a viral video, said he resorted to the act because he owed his brother and sister money, which he had already spent and had no means of repaying.
In the clip shared by the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, on Sunday, the suspect explained that on July 1, he was asked to dispose of refuse, but instead of returning home, he abandoned his wheelbarrow 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.”
He added that he later called his mother to tell her that the kidnappers were beating him and she should send them N700,000 but she told him that the police and local vigilantes had launched efforts to rescue him.
According him, his mother’s statement threw him into panic, narrating that when it was about to rain later that day, he left the bush on a motorcycle to another location before calling his family to claim that he had escaped from his captors.
In a message accompanying the video, Police spokesperson in the state wrote: “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.”
