The Delta State Police Command has arrested a 27-year-old woman, Merit Alice, who allegedly staged her own abduction after squandering N3.6 million meant for purchasing a tricycle.
Alice, who hails from Delta State, confessed to the crime on Monday. She said the money had been entrusted to her by her brother to buy a tricycle but she diverted the funds to sponsor her bridal shower and pay for hotel accommodations for friends during her wedding ceremony held in March.
Trouble began when her brother started asking for a refund, prompting Alice to conspire with two accomplices to fake her kidnapping in a desperate attempt to cover up the missing money.
Narrating the case in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter), the spokesperson of the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, said the fake abduction was reported on July 20.
“On that day, Alice told her husband she was stepping out but later claimed she had been kidnapped. A ransom of N3 million was demanded and paid. Following this, her husband lodged a complaint with the Special Anti-Kidnapping and Cybercrime Squad,” Edafe revealed.
He said police operatives swung into action and eventually apprehended one of the suspects involved, who confessed and exposed the entire plot.
Alice also confessed during interrogation. “My husband and my brothers raised the N3 million ransom. After the payment, I personally withdrew N2.5 million and gave my accomplices N500,000,” she said.
She expressed regret for her actions and blamed it on the pressure to refund the money she had misused. One of her accomplices, identified only as Peter, was a security man at her former workplace.
SP Edafe praised the operatives who uncovered the deception and reaffirmed the command’s commitment to tracking and prosecuting false criminal reports.
