The police have detained Naomi Danlami, an Abuja-based police sergeant, following suspicions that she faked her own kidnap to extort ransom from well-wishers to fund her wedding.
On April 18, Danlami had announced her engagement on Facebook, but the next day, reports of her abduction were made on a Facebook group she belonged to.
According to a source in the Police who spoke with FIJ, when the policewoman’s family called her phone number, her supposed abductors said they didn’t want money but just wanted to kill her.
“Some of her friends in various social media groups started posting about raising funds for her, saying it would make her abductors free her,” the source said.
“During the fundraising exercise, there were dissenting voices who expressed doubts about the abduction story. Some of her colleagues said she had a history of criminal behaviour; they said she was not truthful, not to be trusted, and that her lifestyle was wayward.
“As efforts to secure her release intensified, Usman Baba-Alkali, the Inspector-General of Police, learnt of the matter, according to FIJ’s source, and ordered the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) to fish out Danlami’s abductors.
When the IRT got to work, they revealed her last known location to be somewhere in Nasarawa State.
Danlami would suddenly appear on Saturday, claiming she escaped from the kidnappers’ den where she was molested. She was reported to have insisted on returning to work as though nothing happened, to the surprise of those around her, consequently raising suspicion from the Force Headquarters.
“We all thought that if she was kidnapped and molested in addition, the first thing for her to do was go to a hospital for examination and possible treatment, not to show up at work straight away,” said the source.
Danlami went to work, and the IRT detained her as they continued their investigation into the matter.
FIJ obtained audio by a policewoman who, in addition to knowing Danlami, helped with the fundraising.
In it, she accused Danlami of causing her discomfort during the supposed kidnap, only to turn out it was staged.
She said, “See suffer wey I suffer. Do you know that the kidnappers called; they are not kidnappers. It is set up, this girl just set [it] up; she needs money.
“That girl is wicked, see the wey I just de cry since.”
The IRT eventually released Danlami on Tuesday, according to the source, but the circumstances of her release remain unknown.
FIJ called Muyiwa Adejobi, Federal Police Force Public Relations Officer, for comments, but he said he was not aware of the incident.
He said he would get information from the relevant quarters, but as of press time, he was yet to get back to FIJ.