The Anambra State Police Command has arrested a student from Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) for faking her own kidnapping in an attempt to collect ransom from her parents to fund her boyfriend’s business.
The two suspects, identified as 28-year-old Chinecherem Okonkwo and 30-year-old Chinecherem Aronu, allegedly orchestrated their own abduction and used an anonymous caller to demand a ransom of ₦10 million from Okonkwo’s family.
This information was disclosed in a press statement by SP Tochukwu Ikenga, the spokesman for the Anambra State Police, on Monday.
According to the report, Okonkwo had contacted her family on July 8, 2025, claiming she was returning home from school but never arrived. Throughout that day, her phone remained switched off. The following day, July 9, her family received a call from an unknown male voice who claimed responsibility for her kidnapping and demanded a ransom of ₦10 million.
After negotiations, the ransom was lowered to ₦3 million, and a partial payment of ₦1 million was subsequently transferred into Okonkwo’s bank account.
During interrogation, both suspects confessed to staging the kidnapping as part of a scheme to extort money from the victim’s family. Ikenga revealed that Okonkwo admitted to devising the plan after watching a movie and intended to use the money to help her boyfriend start a business.
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