The Ebonyi State Police Command has uncovered a staged kidnapping involving a 16-year-old secondary school student who allegedly conspired with a family friend to extort ₦2 million from her relatives. The teenager, an SS2 student at a private school on Watchman Street, Abakaliki, was reported missing on Saturday after leaving home to purchase second-hand clothes (Okirika), sparking a frantic search.
Police spokesperson SP Joshua Ukandu disclosed that the girl, a native of Izzi Local Government Area, later contacted her brother via a family friend’s phone, claiming kidnappers demanded the ransom. “She refused to let her brother speak with the supposed abductors, blocked his number, and later sent a bank account linked to the accomplice,” Ukandu stated.
Authorities tracked the phone to the family friend’s residence in Ishieke Junction, Ebonyi LGA, where both were arrested. The girl claimed she lost consciousness after being “tapped from behind” while shopping and awoke in Ishieke, a narrative police dismissed as fabricated. Investigators confirmed the accomplice, unaware the girl was reported missing, harbored her and aided the ransom plot.
Though reunited with her family, the case remains under investigation due to her status as a minor.
