‘How I Faked My Own Kidnap to Extort ₦25m Ransom From My Family’ — Delta Man Confesses

• A Delta State resident has confessed to staging his own kidnapping and demanding a ₦25 million ransom from his family, claiming he was desperate after spending money he owed his siblings.

A Delta State-based man, Michael James, has confessed to orchestrating his own kidnapping in a bid to extort ₦25 million from his family after spending money he owed his brother and sister.

In an interrogation video shared by the Delta State Police Command on Sunday, James admitted that financial pressure pushed him to stage the fake abduction.

“My name is Michael James. I am from Edo State, but I live in Delta State. I kidnapped myself. The reason I kidnapped myself was that I owed my sister and my brother, and I had already spent the money. I had no way of paying it back.”

According to him, the plan began on July 1, when he was sent to dispose of refuse. Instead of returning home, he abandoned his wheelbarrow and hid in a nearby bush.

“On the 1st of this month, they asked me to go and throw away the trash. After throwing away the trash, I parked my wheelbarrow and entered the bush.”

James said he ignored repeated calls from his mother before eventually contacting her to falsely claim that he had been kidnapped and that his captors were demanding ₦25 million for his release.

He later intensified the deception by telling his family he was being beaten by the kidnappers and asking them to transfer ₦700,000.

“Later, when I picked up, I told her that the kidnappers were flogging me and that she should transfer ₦700,000 to them.”

However, after his mother informed him that the police and local vigilantes had launched a rescue operation, James became worried that the scheme was beginning to unravel.

As rain approached later that day, he left the bush on a motorcycle, travelled to another location and called his family again, this time claiming he had escaped from his abductors.

The Delta State Police Command said it immediately launched an investigation after receiving the kidnapping report and used digital intelligence to trace his location.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, officers tracked the suspect to where he claimed he was being held, only for him to emerge and insist he had escaped.

“We received a distress call that he was kidnapped. The command embarked on digitally generated intelligence and trailed him to where he was allegedly being kept, only for the suspect to run out, claiming he escaped from the kidnappers.

“He later confessed that he kidnapped himself so he could extort his family the sum of ₦25m,” Edafe said.

Police noted that the incident is another example of individuals staging fake kidnappings to extort money from relatives, a trend that has surfaced in different parts of the country in recent months.