Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a 26 year old housewife, Misturah Bada, and an accomplice for allegedly staging her own kidnap and extorting a ransom of N2.5 million from her husband who resides in South Africa.
The Command’s spokesperson, SP Abimbola Adebisi, disclosed this in a statement issued on Saturday, saying the police acted on a distress call from the husband who reported that his wife had been kidnapped and was still being held despite the payment of ransom.
According to the statement, “Operatives of the Command Special Squad have arrested a housewife, Mrs Misturah Bada ‘f’, aged 26 years, alongside her cohort, Adedamola Daniel ‘m’, aged 30 years, for false kidnapping, conspiracy, and extortion.”
The police explained that the incident was reported on November 24, 2025, at about 10 pm, when the husband contacted one of the emergency lines, claiming that armed men had abducted his wife and demanded a ransom of N10 million, which was later reduced to N3 million.
“A sum of N2.5 million was subsequently paid by the husband, Mr Bada, a Nigerian resident in South Africa, yet the supposed kidnappers refused to release the victim,” the statement added.
Following the report, the Command said it immediately deployed both human and technical resources to track the alleged kidnappers. Mrs Bada was later released and reunited with her family before she was invited for questioning.
During debriefing, she claimed she was kidnapped by six armed men driving a silver Toyota Venza, taken to their hideout, and dispossessed of her iPhone 12 Pro Max.
She also told investigators that the ransom paid by her husband was first paid into her bank account before being handed over to the kidnappers.
However, police said inconsistencies were discovered in her account. This led to the arrest of Adedamola Daniel on December 3, 2025, in Ede area of Osun State. A SIM card used to register the WhatsApp account through which ransom negotiations were conducted was recovered from him.
SP Adebisi stated that during interrogation, Daniel confessed that Mrs Bada requested the use of his SIM card to open the WhatsApp account used for the ransom talks and that he supplied the OTP sent to his line, enabling her to operate the account.
“Following his confession, Mrs Misturah Bada was confronted and she admitted to faking her own kidnapping to extort money from her husband,” the statement said.
Further investigation led to the recovery of the iPhone 12 Pro Max earlier claimed to be with the kidnappers. The phone was recovered from one Yusuf Sodiq, aged 34, who admitted buying it from Mrs Bada for N380,000 after she warned him not to insert any SIM card into it.
The police said investigation into the case is ongoing and that Mrs Bada and her accomplices will be charged to court at the conclusion of the investigation.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Olohundare Jimoh, warned members of the public against false reporting, criminal deception, and acts capable of diverting critical security resources.
He reaffirmed the Command’s commitment to protecting lives and property and urged residents to promptly report suspicious activities through the Command’s emergency lines.
