Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have apprehended a 17-year-old, Chiamaka, for allegedly conspiring with three friends to fake her kidnap and extort N500,000 from her mother, who works on a farm, as ransom.

In a video shared on X on Friday, the command’s spokesperson, Bright Edafe, said the suspect, the lastborn of seven children, currently in SS3, travelled to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and lodged in a hotel where she and her friends staged the kidnap.

Mr Edafe said, “While they were there, she called her mom that she had been kidnapped and her mom should send money. The mom, who is a poor woman—according to her, she’s a widow—went all about, looking for money to ensure that she is set free, though in the process, she also reported to the police.

“We discovered that this might not be an actual case of kidnap but self-kidnap, which we’ve recorded in the past. Oftentimes, they are always between the ages of 15, 17 and 20. 

“The touching part is that one of her friends had been doing it to her mother. She will kidnap herself, the mom will look for money, and she will now come out and say she has been set free. That’s how she decided, together with her friends, to also do the same to her mother.”

In the video, the suspect, who said two of the friends are 18 years old and the third is 20, confessed that they used the money to buy themselves clothes.

“I organised with my friends to kidnap myself and collect money from my mother. I didn’t want to do that; it’s because of my three friends—they forced me to do it,” the suspect said.

When asked how much was extorted and what she wanted to do with the money, the suspect responded, “N500,000; all of us used the money to buy clothes.”

Mr Edafe advised members of the public against yielding to peer pressure.