Man arrested for pretending to be kidnapper

isaac dachen

October 28, 2015 1:31 PM

A young man who thought he could make fast money by pretending to be a kidnapper has been arrested.

Sebastine Odo

In his quest for sharp and fast money, a 200-level student of a university in Kogi State, Sebastine Odo, pretended to be one of the kidnappers that abducted the wife of The Sun Newspapers' Deputy Managing Director, Steve Nwosu, leading to his recent troubles as he has been arrested by police operatives attached to the Lagos State Police Command.

According to reports in the Punch, Odo had put a call across to the husband of the abducted woman, Toyin, demanding for ransom before she would be released and after Nwosu reported the call to the police, the law enforcement officers used the call log to trace Odo and he was arrested.

It was during investigations that it was realised that Odo wanted to extort money from the distressed family after reading of the kidnap in the newspapers and he confessed to the fact.

“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.”

Recall that Toyin Nwosu, a mother of two, was kidnapped in her family residence at Ago Palace Way, Okota, on Tuesday, September 15, after a gang of robbers stormed the area and escaped in a speedboat.

She was released four days later.

Read: "In Lagos: Wife of The Sun newspapers DMD, Toyin Nwosu regains freedom"

isaac dachen