A 20-year-old housewife in Niger State, Habiba Usman, has been arrested for being the mastermind of her own kidnap.
Mrs Usman was apprehended alongside two principal suspects, Abubakar Umar, 28, of Chanchaga, and Musa Abubakar, 22, of Sauka Kahuta, by police operatives attached to the Anti-kidnapping Unit, Security Intelligence Bureau and the Bosso Police Division.
The operatives were said to have carried out an intelligence-based operation leading to the arrest of the suspects at the Tunga area of Minna.
It was gathered that on December 28, 2018, one Usman Alfa of Beji in the Bosso local government area of the state reported to the police that his wife, who left home on December 26 for medical check-up at the Minna General Hospital, was nowhere to be found.
He was said to have received an anonymous call from a gang of suspected kidnappers demanding N4m ransom for the release of his wife.
According to Alfa, after several rounds of negotiation with the gang, he paid N150, 000 ransom for her freedom.
Northern City News, however, gathered on Thursday that the victim planned her abduction in order to obtain money from the husband.
One of the suspects, Umar, said that the victim connived with him and the other members of the gang to execute the plan.
“Our victim came to us that she wished to extort money from her husband, Alfa, and we started hatching a plan to accomplish her wish, which has now landed us in trouble,” he said.
Confirming the incident, Niger police spokesperson, Muhammad Abubakar, said the suspects had confessed to the crime, noting that operatives recovered N140,850 from them.
He added that the suspects would be arraigned in court after the conclusion of investigation.
