January 19, (THEWILL) — Another dimension to kidnapping for ransom has been uncovered by the Police in Lagos. The dramatis personae are different, not the usual run-of-the-mill criminals armed with dangerous weapons or terrorists; but ordinary people driven by plain mischief, desperation, frustration or poverty to stage kidnappings. The goal is usually to extort relations, friends, associates and more.
Warning residents about a surge in fake kidnapping scams, the Police Command in the state has said it is closely monitoring social media platforms to uncover and tackle a wave of staged kidnappings in parts of the state.
In a recent revelation, the command said that several social media videos depicting kidnapping incidents, which had sparked fear and led to ransom payments, were carefully orchestrated scams.
She said that in one of the cases involving a 26-year-old housewife alarm bells were set off across borders when her husband, who is resident in South Africa, received frantic reports that armed men had kidnapped his wife in Lagos.
The kidnappers demanded a ransom of N10 million which was later trimmed down to N3 million. The woman’s husband, hoping to save her life, eventually paid N2.5 million. But she was not released.
The police said that the alleged victim had staged the kidnapping with the help of an accomplice in Osun State, who supplied a SIM card used to negotiate the ransom on WhatsApp.
In a related development, the Command claimed it apprehended five suspects aged between 15 and 20 years for orchestrating another fake kidnapping that went viral on social media.
According to Adebisi, Police investigations revealed that a 15-year-old boy, with the help of four friends, staged his own abduction in a friend’s room in the Ago Palace Way area of Lagos to extort money from his mother.
A ransom of N1.7 million was paid before detectives traced the transaction through a POS terminal, leading to the arrest of the suspects.
The case, she noted, initially reported as a missing person incident on Nov. 26, 2025, had triggered widespread panic before the truth emerged.
Adebisi urged the public to remain vigilant and promptly report suspicious activities, stressing that security is a shared responsibility.
Fortunately the Police, particularly in urban areas such as Lagos, seem to be on top of the situation and fully prepared to deal severely with fraudsters caught staging fake kidnappings.
Rather than be seen as a fall-out of the worsening insecurity in the country, we believe the surge in fake kidnapping scams is a direct off-shoot of the bleak economic situation in the country. Unable to cope with the hardship, pain and hunger that now defines the existence of the average Nigerian, many people now resort to staged kidnappings as a means of survival.
