SP Daniel Ndukwe,
The Enugu State Police Command has arrested Chibuike Joshua Ugwuja, a 26-year-old man, for allegedly faking his own kidnapping and demanding ₦35 million from his family.
According to a statement by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Daniel Ndukwe, the suspect’s father reported his disappearance to the Trans-Ekulu Division on November 24, after Ugwuja, who works as a private security guard in a local estate, failed to return home from work on November 22.
The father also revealed that the suspect sent a message via Facebook to a female neighbor, claiming he had been abducted by unknown individuals on a commercial bus, and that his kidnappers were demanding a ransom.
While police intensified efforts to locate the alleged victim, Ugwuja returned home on November 29 at about 9 am.
He later confessed to staging the kidnapping. Investigations revealed that instead of going home after work, he had gone to a friend’s residence in Amorji Nike, Enugu, where he orchestrated the hoax.
The suspect admitted that his actions were motivated by frustration over his uncle’s alleged inability to provide him with a tricycle.
He demanded ₦35 million from his family, but when the ransom was not paid, he returned home.
He has since been taken into custody and will be arraigned in court upon the conclusion of police investigations.
The Commissioner of Police, Mamman Bitrus Giwa, described the incident as a “regrettable height of criminality,” while commending the suspect’s parents for promptly reporting the matter and producing their son rather than concealing the situation.
CP Giwa reassured the public that the law would take its full course and urged citizens to report suspected cases of kidnapping and cooperate with law enforcement, rather than yielding to ransom demands.
