Lagos: Students fake kidnap, demand Bitcoin for ransom

The Lagos State Police Command apprehended two undergraduate companions who orchestrated a fake kidnapping scheme to extort money from their parents.

The suspects, 21-year-old Balogun Ayodele, a second-year student at Lagos State University of Education, Ijanikin, and Okuomo Dennis, also 21 years old and a student at the National Institute of Information Technology, Lagos, emerged from hiding after a week in the bush without receiving ransom from their parents.

Dennis proposed the idea of staging Ayodele’s abduction to extort money from his father, who works as a driver at an undisclosed company.

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On February 2, 2024, Ayodele vanished from home and subsequently sent his father a text demanding $20,000 ransom via Bitcoin for his release.

Upon failing to receive the ransom, they resorted to taking Ayodele to a nearby bush, where they photographed him naked and sent the images to his father, threatening him if the money wasn’t paid.

When their initial approach failed, Dennis orchestrated his own disappearance, hoping his father would pay ransom. They repeated the same tactic, demanding initially $80,000 and then increasing it to $100,000.

Unable to secure any money, they emerged from hiding on March 16, 2024, claiming to have escaped from the kidnappers’ den. Ayodele was taken to the hospital for treatment, as his father believed he was genuinely kidnapped.

They were eventually arrested after turning themselves in and confessed to the crime during the investigation.