A Delta State-based man, Michael James, has narrated why he allegedly staged a self-kidnapping scheme to extort N25m from his family.

James, in an interrogation video shared by the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, on Sunday, said he resorted to the act because he owed his brother and sister money, which he had already spent and had no means of repaying.

He explained that on July 1, he was asked to dispose of refuse, but instead of returning home, he abandoned his wheelbarrow and hid in a nearby bush.

“My name is Michael James. I am from Edo State, but I live in Delta State. I kidnapped myself. The reason I kidnapped myself was that I owed my sister and my brother, and I had already spent the money. I had no way of paying it back.

“On the 1st of this month, they asked me to go and throw away the trash. After throwing away the trash, I parked my wheelbarrow and entered the bush.

“After some time, my mum started calling me, but I did not answer. Later, I called my mum and told her that I had been kidnapped and that the kidnappers were demanding N25m. Then I ended the call.”

The suspect added that he later called his mother again, claiming that his abductors were beating him and he had transferred N700,000 to them.

He said that after learning from his mother that the police and local vigilantes had launched efforts to rescue him, he became worried.

According to him, when it was about to rain later that day, he left the bush on a motorcycle to another location before calling his family to claim that he had escaped from his captors.

“They kept calling me, but I did not answer. Later, when I picked up, I told her that the kidnappers were flogging me and that she should transfer N700,000 to them.

“They kept calling again, but I did not answer. When I later picked up, my mum told me that the police and vigilantes were already handling the matter and that they would rescue me.

“In the evening, I realised it was about to rain, so I took a motorcycle to another place. I then called them and told them that I had escaped from the kidnappers,” James narrated.

Reacting, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Command, Bright Edafe, in a message accompanying the video, said the command swiftly responded to the reported kidnapping by deploying digital intelligence to trace the suspect’s location.

“We received a distress call that he was kidnapped. The command embarked on digitally generated intelligence and trailed him to where he was allegedly being kept, only for the suspect to run out, claiming he escaped from the kidnappers.

“He later confessed that he kidnapped himself so he could extort his family the sum of N25m,” Edafe wrote.

This is not the first time individuals have taken advantage of the rampant kidnapping incident to stage a self-kidnapping scheme to extort money.

PUNCH Metro reported on June 9 that the Ogun State Police Command arrested eight foreign nationals operating a self-kidnapping scheme to extort money from their families abroad in Adiyan town, in the Agbado area of the state.

The spokesperson for the command, Oluseyi Babaseyi, had stated that the arrest followed an intelligence-led operation into a reported kidnapping case, adding that investigations revealed that the acclaimed kidnapping was a staged abduction aimed at extorting money from unsuspecting family members.