A 24-year-old lady, Medinat Ibrahim, who allegedly faked her own kidnap in Olude, Oke-Fomo area of Ilorin, Kwara State, last Saturday, said she committed the crime to raise money to settle debt.
Ibrahim, who was paraded alongside two other suspects, Amudalat Wahab,30, and Hammed Lekan,28, by the Kwara State Police Command on Wednesday, said she decided to commit the offence as a result of frustration and stoppage of her salary by her employer, following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
The teacher, who said that she is from a polygamous home, revealed that she was maltreated by her stepmother who she claimed also caused friction between her and her father, adding that she decided to fake her own kidnap to get money to offset debts she incurred during COVID-19 lockdown.
She said her business had collapsed, adding that the private school where she taught as a teacher had stopped paying her salary since the outbreak of COVID-19.
“I teach in a private school where I was paid N15,000. We organised monthly contribution which I collected and invested in a business, but when COVID-19 broke out, our salary was stopped, I could no longer continue with the contribution.
“Those who were in the group continued to mount pressure on me to pay up my own contribution and there is nowhere that I could get the money. So I decided to go and hide in my sister’s place and I told someone to call my father on phone that I was kidnapped and demanded a ransom of N250,000 which was paid to my friend’s account,” she said.
The state Commissioner of Police (CP), Muhammed Bagega, said Medinat conspired with her elder sister, Amudalat Wahab, and one Hammed Lekan to arrange her kidnap.
The CP said a bank account, belonging to one Hammed, was used to cash the N250,000.
It is not going to be business as usual, criminals are warned to pack their loads and relocate from Kwara State as the command will stop at nothing to deal with any criminal arrested, no matter how highly or lowly placed,” Bagega added.
