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Lagos, Nigeria – An 18-year-old girl was arrested in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, for allegedly faking her own kidnapping to demand ransom from her family, police said Tuesday.
Ujunwa Offiah is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend to stage her kidnapping, asking her family to pay 30 million naira ($ 79,336, 65,500 euros).
She was arrested along with another alleged accomplice, Precious Chukwu, 22, while the ransom money was being withdrawn, police said.
“This is a simulated conspiracy and kidnapping case,” State Police Commissioner Hakeem Odumosu said in a statement.
He said Offiah’s boyfriend, an Uber driver and “the man at the center of this case,” is still at large.
“We are going to go after him because he conspired with one of these two women, Offiah, who faked his abduction.”
Odumosu said that after the negotiation, the ransom was lowered to 700,000 naira ($ 1,851).
Kidnapping for ransom is common in southern Nigeria, where prominent Nigerian oil workers, including family members of sports stars, have been kidnapped in recent years.
Victims are generally released unharmed after payment of the ransom.
In June, a 17-year-old girl in the southwestern state of Ogun was arrested for faking her own kidnapping to demand her mother’s ransom.
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