Kogi University student arrested for impersonating kidnapper

fuad lawal

October 28, 2015 9:18 AM

A student of a University in Kogi State is being held by the Lagos State Police COmmand after pretending to be a kidnapper with the intention of extorting money.

Odo Sebastine, a 200-level student in a Kogi State University, is being held by the Lagos State Police Command, after he impersonated a kidnapper of Toyin, the wife of The Sun Newspaper's Deputy Director, Mr. Steve Nwosu.

According to Punch, Sebastine said on Tuesday at the police command headquarters, Ikeja, that he pretended to be one of the kidnappers and put a call across to the victim’s family so as to extort some money from the family.

On Monday, September 14, Toyin was abducted from the family’s Ago Palace, Okota residence after a gang of robbers stormed the area at about 2am.

It had been later reported that the robbers, who escaped in a speedboat, had released the mother of two some four days later, after which she was reunited with her family.

It was later gathered that in the course of police investigation, Sebastine was arrested as one of the suspected kidnappers, after he allegedly called Toyin’s husband to discuss the payment of a ransom.

Sebastine, who confirmed making the phone call, however, said he had read the report on the pages of the newspapers and he had thought it would be an avenue to extort money from the distressed family.

He said:

“I am an undergraduate in Kogi. I am studying Economics. On that Tuesday, I had read the report of the woman’s abduction on the pages of the newspaper just like everyone. I thought I could make money from the family so I decided to find the director’s phone number from a copy of the SUN newspaper.

I called him to say that I could get him the gang’s location and bring back his wife. I asked him to pay N100, 000. I lied to him that I was a member of the gang and thought he would pay the money.

But he had not paid the money before I was arrested. The police traced the call and got me. I am not a kidnapper. I am a student.”

A police source told our correspondent that Nwosu realised that Sebastine’s call was not genuine when the real gang placed a call to demand a N100m ransom later in the day.

He added that the police were, however, extracting useful information from the suspect.

The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, noted that investigations were still ongoing on the matter.

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