During her parade at the Lagos State Police Command on Monday, Adilewa said she faked her kidnap because she needed money to pay her school fees.
A 19-year-old female has confessed to operatives of the Lagos State Police Command to faking her own kidnap to defraud her father of the sum of N600,000.
Dorcas Adilewa claimed that she carried out the plan with her female friend, Ifeoluwa Ogunbanjo, but Ogunbanjo denied knowledge of the kidnap plan.
During her parade at the Lagos State Police Command on Monday, Adilewa said she faked her kidnap because she needed money to pay her school fees.
“When the payment of my school fee was delayed, I went to my friend’s (Ogunbanjo) place, where I called my father,” Adilewa said. “I was at her place on Thursday and I went back home on Friday when my dad said he could not afford the money.”
Ogunbajo has also been arrested by the Police.
According to the Police, Taiwo Adilewa, the defrauded father, allegedly received a call that his daughter had been arrested and a ransom of N600,000 was requested for her release.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, said upon the complaint laid by Adilewa, the Police Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the command swung to action.
He said: “The kidnapper told the father that if he did not want his daughter killed, he should pay a ransom of N600,000 to secure her release.
“Investigation into the case immediately commenced and the phone number that was used by the callers was geo-located to the Ijebu Igbo area of Ogun State. The head of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit led his men to Ijebu Igbo at about 10pm the same day and combed the area in search of the supposed victim till the following morning.
“The supposed kidnappers relocated to Ikotun in Lagos and the search party also moved to Ikotun to rescue the victim.
“When the fake kidnappers realised that the Police were closing in on them, the supposed victim called the complainant to inform him that she had been released after she gave them the N8,000 the father sent to her bank account.
“Dorcas confessed that she planned the kidnap with her friend, Ifeoluwa Ogunbanjo, who provided her with accommodation on Adeboye Road, Okesopin, Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, as well as the mobile phone they used to demand the ransom. Her reason was that she wanted to extort money from her father.”
However, Ogunbanjo said she only accommodated Dorcas at her parents’ house because Dorcas told her she had escaped from kidnappers.
She said: “It was because she used my phone to call that the Police came to Ijebu. What she told me was that she entered kidnappers' bus and that when she escaped, she came to Ijebu Ode.
“When she came, my mum entertained her and the next day, my mum gave her N500. She needed additional N500 to complete the N1,000 she needed to transport herself home. So she said she wanted to use my phone to call her daddy so she can tell him to send her some money to transport herself. So I gave her, not knowing that she was using it to demand money from her daddy.
“She asked for my bank account number and I said I did not have. So, I went to meet someone beside my mummy’s shop to collect an account number. It is God that saved me that she did not use that person’s account number. I never knew that her daddy had sent N8,000 into her account and she did not tell me anything.”