Operatives of the Ebonyi State Police Command have arrested two young men for allegedly staging a fake abduction to extort a N30 million ransom from the father of one of the suspects.
The suspects, identified as Fortune Onuoha and his friend, Godspower Nkwo—popularly known as “Hulk”—were apprehended following a week-long intelligence operation.
According to a statement issued in Abakaliki on Saturday by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Joshua Ukandu, the incident began at about 10:30 p.m. on October 31, 2026, when Onuoha’s father alerted the police control room that his son had been kidnapped from his hostel in Ikwo Local Government Area.
The complainant told investigators he had received view-once videos and voice notes depicting his son bound, accompanied by demands for N30 million and death threats if the money was not paid.
Following the distress call, the command deployed operatives for a discreet, intelligence-led investigation to track the abductors.
”Sustained surveillance and discreet investigative efforts led to a breakthrough on November 5, when police operatives arrested the two suspects as they emerged from the room where they had been hiding,” Ukandu stated.
Reacting to the incident, the Ebonyi State Commissioner of Police, Mrs. Urunwa Okafor, condemned the trend of staged abductions, warning that such false alarms inflict severe emotional trauma on families while diverting critical security resources away from genuine emergencies.
She stressed that faking a kidnapping is a punishable criminal offense under the law and urged members of the public, particularly youths, to pursue lawful means of resolving their challenges.
