A 45-year-old woman arrested in southern Nigeria has confessed to staging her own kidnapping in a desperate bid to extort 50 million naira ($33,500) from her own family to clear her debts.
Oluchi Ugbowan was arrested alongside three alleged accomplices at a hotel in the Ikpoba Hills area of Edo State, days after her relatives reported her missing and received a massive ransom demand.
In a video released by the Edo State Police Command on Tuesday, Ms. Ugbowan admitted that the entire abduction was a choreographed simulation. She explained that she chose to go into hiding after facing immense pressure from microfinance creditors.
“I wanted to stage a drama that would look like a kidnapping,” Ms. Ugbowan said. “My mindset was that if they saw stronger evidence, they would come up with a better negotiation.”
She admitted to orchestrating the details of the staged hostage video sent to her family, instructing her accomplices to use props to make the danger appear authentic.
“I told them to put the cutlass on my neck and say, ‘Say your last prayer.’ I was the one who tied my hands,” she said, expressing regret and adding that mounting debts had clouded her judgement.
One of her co-suspects, Israel Ability, told police he bought a new SIM card to make the anonymous ransom calls to Ms Ugbowan’s husband, initially demanding 50 million naira before lowering the sum to 20 million naira as negotiations progressed.
In a bizarre twist, Mr. Ability’s younger brother, Chinedu Chibuzor—who was filmed holding a firearm to the woman’s head—claimed he had no idea a real crime was being committed.
“She said she wanted to perform a drama in the church,” the teenager told police, explaining that he had taken his father’s gun for the recording.
The boys’ father was also detained after confirming ownership of the unlicensed shotgun, which he claimed he had acquired for local community vigilante duties.
Staging an abduction is a serious criminal offence in Nigeria, where a severe kidnapping crisis carried out by armed gangs has left communities on edge and made families highly vulnerable to ransom extortion.
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