KANO, Nigeria – Kano State Police have arrested a 19-year-old man, Nafiu Sulaiman, who allegedly faked his own kidnapping and subsequently collected N365,000 in ransom from his uncle.
Sulaiman, who works in his uncle’s cement shop in Garindau village in Warawa LGA, confessed to orchestrating the kidnapping hoax when the police paraded him.
He admitted to staging his abduction as a ploy to acquire money to purchase clothes and other items.
According to Sulaiman, he took himself to an uncompleted building, where he stayed for several days during the staged kidnapping.
He claims that the extorted money was eventually stolen from him.
“I planned everything. I used another line to call my boss, who is also my uncle. I demanded a ransom and asked them to drop it somewhere. I stayed there all these long, and when I needed food, I came out to buy and go back,” Sulaiman confessed.
“But I didn’t use even one per cent of the money. I spent only N20,000 and buried the money somewhere. When I got there I found the money was stolen.”
The state’s Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Usaini Gumel, confirmed the arrest and the suspect’s confession.
According to CP Gumel, Sulaiman single-handedly conceived and executed the kidnapping plot to defraud his uncle.
