A 54-year-old woman in Delta State has allegedly conspired with others to stage her own abduction and demand N15 million from her younger brother as ransom.
The woman, identified as Umadi, reportedly told her brother that she had been abducted by gunmen while going to buy medicine, pleading that the supposed kidnappers would kill her if he failed to pay the money.
During interrogation, the suspect reportedly admitted arranging the fake abduction and contacting her brother to demand the ransom.
When asked how much she requested, she answered, “N15m”.
She also admitted threatening that the supposed kidnappers would kill her if the money was not paid.
However, when asked why she decided to put her younger brother through such distress, despite admitting that he had not wronged her, the suspect failed to give a convincing explanation.
An investigation by the Delta State Police Command reportedly exposed the alleged abduction as a plot to extort money from her family.
The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Bright Edafe, disclosed that the incident was reported at the Ogwashi-Uku Police Division on October 23, 2026.
Edafe said the Commissioner of Police subsequently directed operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Ubuluku, to investigate the report and secure the woman's release.
He said intelligence gathered by the operatives revealed that the woman had allegedly arranged the abduction herself to defraud her younger brother.
Expressing surprise at the development, the police spokesman said the command had previously encountered cases of staged kidnappings involving teenagers but had never handled one involving a woman of her age.
“In the past, we have heard of cases of self-kidnap and fake kidnap that were done by underage or, let me say, teenagers of 15, 16, 17 to 20, but we have never had a case that involved a 54-year-old elderly woman.
“It is quite unfortunate that she faked her own kidnapping because she wanted to extort her younger brother a sum of N15m,” Edafe said.
Edafe further disclosed that the woman claimed she had been held captive for 12 days after allegedly staging the abduction.
The police spokesman commended the younger brother for reporting the incident to the police rather than paying the ransom, urging members of the public to alert security agencies whenever they receive kidnapping threats involving their relatives.
He added that investigations had revealed the possible involvement of other persons in the alleged scheme.
“Some of the people she conspired with her; we are still on their trail because obviously she didn’t do it alone, and we are definitely going to arrest them,” Edafe said.
The command said efforts were ongoing to apprehend the suspected accomplices and unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident.