A 45-year-old woman arrested by the Edo State Police Command for allegedly faking her own kidnapping, Oluchi Ugbowan, has broken her silence and admitted publicly that she was never abducted but voluntarily staged the entire incident, recruited accomplices including two brothers, directed them to threaten her with a cutlass and later an unlicensed gun, tied her own hands, orchestrated the recording of a fake abduction video, and instructed one of the accomplices to call her husband directly and demand N50 million in ransom, all to raise money to pay off debts that she said were “weighing heavily” on her.

Ugbowan was arrested alongside three others, Israel Ability (28), his younger brother Chinedu Chibuzor (18), and their father (39), at a hotel in the Ikpoba Hills area of Edo State, days after her family reported that she had been kidnapped and that a ransom of N50 million was demanded.

The police paraded all four suspects in a video shared on social media by the command’s spokesperson, CSP Eno Ikoedem, on Tuesday. The suspects each gave their account of the events, painting a picture of a scheme that began as a plan to “go into hiding” and escalated into a staged kidnapping complete with weapons, threatening videos, and ransom calls.

According to Ugbowan, the plan was driven entirely by financial desperation. She said she was burdened by debts owed to several individuals and institutions, including the microfinance institution LAPO, whose debt collectors visited her house on the very day she went missing, an event she described as the final trigger.

“That was not my intention. It was the debt that was weighing heavily on me. They can ask people, even LAPO came to my place that day, the day I went missing, and that was what motivated me. I said, ‘Let me just do this and see how much I will get,'” Ugbowan stated.

She said she initially planned to simply go into hiding and then approached Israel Ability, described as someone she knew in her community, with a proposal to help her execute a plan to raise money from her family.

“I was not kidnapped, but I went into hiding. Two days later, I called him again. He said the matter had escalated and asked how much they had in hand. They said N3.5 million. I said, ‘Let’s manage it.’ They said they wanted to add to the money, but it was reduced to N20 million,” Ugbowan recounted.

She said she told Ability the amount was too much: “I told him it was too much. If we had N5 million, we would be fine. I could pay off the debt because we had agreed on one week.”

But the plan evolved from hiding into a full-scale staged kidnapping. “We acted it out as a drama. So I approached these children. He came with his younger brother. I told them I wanted to stage a drama that would look like a kidnapping,” Ugbowan stated.

Ugbowan disclosed that she personally directed the production of the fake kidnapping video intended to pressure her family into raising more money. She suggested using weapons to make the video more convincing.

“I told them to put the cutlass on my neck and said, ‘Say your last prayer,'” Ugbowan recounted.

However, during the discussion about staging the video, the brothers mentioned that their father owned a gun, though the father was not home at the time. Ugbowan immediately seized on the opportunity for a more convincing prop.

“So when we were discussing it, the children said their father had a gun, but the father was not around. I asked if there were any bullets, but they said there were none. I said, ‘If you have a gun, go and bring it. It’s better,'” she stated.

The brothers went inside their home and brought out the gun. The video was then recorded inside the room, with Ugbowan directing the entire production.

“So they went inside and brought the gun. I told them to put it on my neck and said, ‘Say your last prayer.’ It was inside the room that we acted it out. I was the one who tied my hands. My mindset was that if they saw stronger evidence, they would come up with a better negotiation,” Ugbowan admitted.

The detail that Ugbowan tied her own hands before the video was recorded underscores the extent to which she orchestrated every element of the deception.

Israel Ability, the 28-year-old accomplice, provided his own account of how he became involved and how the ransom demand was made.

According to Ability, Ugbowan approached him and spent several days pressuring and begging him to participate before he agreed. He said the plan to go into hiding began on May 27.

“We had an agreement where she came to me and said if I could help her with some plans. She told me about the plans, and I said, ‘Okay, fine.’ After so much pressure and begging, I said, ‘Okay, no problem.’ Because, before that day, she had told me her plan to go and hide,” Ability stated.

He said he purchased the SIM card used for the ransom call and facilitated the logistics of the scheme. “So I got the SIM card, and then she told me to go to a bar and wait for her so we could go to a hotel to start the call. She is very popular in Agbor. We took a bike, and the bike man took us to a nearby hotel. When we got there, she gave me money, and I paid the hotel fees.”

At the hotel, they inserted the new SIM card into Ugbowan’s phone and Ability called her husband directly. “She said I should call her husband directly to ask for money. I just said 50 million, and that was what I requested from the man,” he stated.

Ability said the police arrested him on a Thursday, bringing the scheme to an abrupt end.

Chinedu Chibuzor, Ability’s 18-year-old brother, gave a strikingly different account of his understanding of the scheme. He claimed he was told the entire exercise was a drama for church purposes and that he did not know the true nature of what was being staged.

“I do not know Madam Oluchi. I was the one who pointed a gun at her head and told her to say her last prayer. She said she wanted to perform a drama in the church. My father owned the gun,” Chibuzor stated.

Whether Chibuzor genuinely believed he was participating in a church drama or was aware of the true nature of the scheme is a question that the ongoing investigation and any subsequent prosecution will need to address. The fact that he pointed an unlicensed firearm at another person’s head, regardless of his understanding of the purpose, exposes him to potential criminal liability.

The father of Israel Ability and Chinedu Chibuzor, a 39-year-old man, was also paraded by the police. He confirmed ownership of the unlicensed firearm used in the staged kidnapping video.

“It’s my gun. My family bought it for me, and it was not licensed. The video was recorded in my house. They are my children. I know Madam Oluchi through my wife,” the father stated.

He said the gun was acquired for vigilante purposes, a common but legally problematic practice in many Nigerian communities where residents arm themselves for local security duties without obtaining the required firearms licence from the authorities.

The possession of an unlicensed firearm is a criminal offence under the Firearms Act, regardless of the purpose for which it was acquired. The father’s admission that the gun was unlicensed and that the staged kidnapping video was recorded in his house exposes him to potential charges related to illegal possession of firearms and possibly accessory liability in connection with the fake kidnapping.

All the principal suspects expressed regret over their involvement in the scheme, though for varying reasons.

Ugbowan said she regretted the outcome but attributed her actions entirely to financial pressure: “That was not my intention. It was the debt that was weighing heavily on me.”

Ability said he felt bad because he believed he was helping someone in need and did not anticipate the legal consequences: “I just feel bad because I thought I was even trying to help her. I have landed myself in a big mess.” He added that there was no formal financial arrangement between him and Ugbowan: “We actually did not bargain for anything, no percentage. But I wanted to help her, and surely I knew that something would come out of it for me.”

The suspects face potential charges under multiple provisions of Nigerian criminal law. Staging a kidnapping and demanding ransom under false pretences could attract charges of obtaining money by false pretence, conspiracy, and criminal intimidation. The use of an unlicensed firearm in the commission of the scheme adds a further layer of criminal liability. The psychological trauma inflicted on Ugbowan’s family members who believed their loved one had been abducted by armed criminals also raises the possibility of additional charges related to the emotional harm caused.

The case also highlights the growing phenomenon of staged kidnappings in Nigeria, where individuals facing financial distress orchestrate fake abductions targeting their own family members as a means of raising funds. Such cases divert police resources from genuine kidnapping investigations, desensitise the public to real abduction threats, and can result in serious consequences including armed police responses that could endanger the lives of both the “victim” and the accomplices.

The Edo State Police Command has not disclosed what specific charges will be filed against the suspects. The investigation is ongoing. None of the suspects has been formally arraigned before a court as at the time of this report.

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