The police have arrested 45-year-old Mrs. Oluchi Ugbowan, who forged self-kidnap, in collaboration with four others who conspired to fraudulently obtain the sum of N50 million as ransom from relations. They plotted the self-kidnap to deceive associates and relations, while appealing for crowdfunding online.

The Edo State Police Command, in a statement, indicated that the husband of Oluchi reported that his wife had been kidnapped and her abductors demanded a ransom of N50 million, noting that he gave the police a phone number used by the abductors.

Operatives of the Edo Anti-kidnapping unit, accordingly, commenced investigation to unravel the circumstances that led to her abduction, as the arrest of a suspect with her phone led to the suspect confession that it was a scam.

The arrested suspect later confessed that Mrs. Oluchi directed him to negotiate her ransom, as he took the police to a hotel in Delta State where she was arrested and confessed to staging her own kidnap.

Other suspects, whose house was used to stage the kidnap video, were picked up in several parts of Delta State, while the Pump Action gun used in the staged kidnap was also recovered during a search at one of the suspects premises.

The Edo State Police Commissioner, CP Monday Agbonika, commended the operatives for their painstaking investigation and professionalism in the timely unraveling of the elaborate deception.