The Lagos State Police Command has detained two undergraduate friends for orchestrating a fake kidnapping scheme aimed at extorting money from their parents.
The suspects, identified as 21-year-old Balogun Ayodele, a second-year student at Lagos State University of Education, Ijanikin, and 21-year-old Okuomo Dennis, a student at the National Institute of Information Technology, Lagos, were apprehended after emerging from hiding in the bush, where they had spent a week without receiving any ransom from their families.
According to reports, Dennis proposed the idea of staging Ayodele’s abduction to extort money from his father, who works as a driver at an undisclosed company. On February 2, 2024, Ayodele disappeared from home and subsequently sent a ransom demand of $20,000 to his father’s phone, instructing payment to a Bitcoin wallet address.
Despite his father’s distress, the company management advised reporting the matter to the Police. Meanwhile, Ayodele remained hidden in one of the rooms at Dennis’ father’s hotel, undetected due to the room’s permanent reservation for Dennis.
When the ransom did not materialize, the duo resorted to taking Ayodele to a nearby bush, photographing him naked, and sending the images to his father, escalating the threats. They even sent messages mentioning other family members to amplify fear.
Failing to secure the ransom, Dennis staged his own disappearance on March 11, 2024, mimicking Ayodele’s supposed kidnapping. The families, desperate for resolution, fell for the ruse again. The students demanded an initial $80,000, later increasing it to $100,000, but to no avail.
Eventually, unable to sustain their hiding in the bush, they resorted to sending threatening pictures of Ayodele’s father’s workplace. This prompted an alert to all staff and further investigation by the Police.The culprits emerged from hiding on March 16, 2024, claiming to have escaped from the kidnappers’ den. Ayodele was taken to the hospital, with his father believing he had indeed been kidnapped. However, they were apprehended after confessing to the crime during police interrogation.
