We did it to extort our mother for maltreating us, say suspects
Two secondary school students, aged 13 and 15, have been arrested by operatives of Ondo State Security Network Agency, known as Amotekun Corps, for allegedly orchestrating their own kidnapping.
The students, who are siblings, disclosed that they hatched the plan to extort money from their mother, who was separated from their father.
The teenagers were apprehended in Oka-Akoko, headquarters of Akoko South-West Local Council of the state, after they went into hiding for three days.
While confessing to the crime at the headquarters of Amotekun Corps in Akure, the state capital, the students, who are in Junior Secondary School (JSS) 3 and Senior Secondary School (SSS) 1, said they decided to extort their mother, whom they alleged had been maltreating them.
According to them, while hiding in a hotel in the community, they put a call through to their mother, where they pretended to have been kidnapped and subsequently demanded N100,000 ransom.
The Commander of the corps in the state, Adetunji Adeleye, said a thorough investigation would be conducted to unravel the extent of the students’ motives and any possible accomplices involved in the incident.
Adeleye also said about 26 suspected criminals involved in kidnapping, burglary, cultism, and illegal possession of firearms, among others, were arrested in various parts of the state.
He said: “The suspects we are parading today show that we have more kidnapping than any other criminal activity. This is in continuation of our efforts at ensuring that kidnapping in Ondo State becomes a thing of the past.
“We have people, who kidnapped themselves and raised the alarm, and in our diligent investigations, we were able to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance to the extent that they confessed. We have also kidnapped suspects of some very high-profile individuals in the society that we are working on.
“Also, here, we have a family where the mother specialises in buying daily needs for kidnap suspects and victims in Owo and Ifon.
“We equally have a group that was apprehended along kidnapping areas and items found on them include; several Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards, to which they could not explain how they came about it, but we believe that the ATM cards belong to those they held hostage and some other things.
“In the last three weeks, we carried out several joint patrols with the military, Civil Defence, as well as with the police. The joint patrol teams combed the forests in Jubere, Ilale in Owo, Arimogija, and Ute to the boundary between Ondo State and Edo State through Akoko, where some of the kidnappers were arrested.”
