A 26-year-old housewife has staged her own abduction and extorted N2.5 million ransom from her husband.

While the police have arrested the woman, a 30-year-old man described as her accomplice was also arrested.

The husband of the woman had contacted police through an emergency line on November 24, reporting that his wife had been kidnapped by armed men

According to the husband, the abductors demanded N10 million ransom buy later reduced to it to N3 million.

The husband quickly paid the sum of N2.5 million, but couldn’t secure the release of his wife.

The Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Abimbola Adebisi, confirmed the story in a statement on Saturday.

She however disclosed that both the wife and another accomplice have been arrested.

The PPRO said upon receipt of the emergency call, operatives deployed technical and human intelligence to track the supposed kidnappers.

“Upon receipt of the complaint, the Command Special Squad immediately deployed human and technical assets to track the alleged kidnappers.

“The supposed victim was eventually released and reunited with her family,” Adebisi said.

During debriefing, the suspect claimed she was abducted by six armed men in a Toyota Venza, taken to a hideout and robbed of her iPhone 12 Pro Max.

She also admitted that the ransom was first paid into her bank account before being passed on to the kidnappers.

However, police investigation uncovered inconsistencies in her account.

“She further claimed that the ransom paid by her husband was first credited into her bank account before being handed over to the kidnappers,” she said.

On December 3, officers traced and arrested her alleged accomplice in Ede, Osun State, recovering from him a SIM card used to register the WhatsApp line used for ransom negotiations.

Adebisi said the accomplice confessed to lending the SIM to the woman, revealing that she used the one-time password sent to his phone to operate the WhatsApp account anonymously.

“During interrogation, the accomplice confessed that the suspect requested the use of his SIM card to create the WhatsApp account used for the ransom negotiations.

“He admitted providing the one-time password (OTP) sent to his line, which enabled her to operate the account,” Adebisi said.

She said the woman later confessed to faking her kidnap to extort money from her husband, who lives in South Africa.

Further investigation led to the recovery of the missing iPhone, which was traced to a 34-year-old man who claimed he bought it from the suspect for N380,000 after being warned not to insert a SIM card.

The police spokesperson said the suspects will be charged to court after investigations are concluded.

She warned the public against false reports capable of diverting critical security resources and urged residents to report suspicious activities through the command’s emergency lines.