A sales boy, Tobiloba Olayinka, has been arrested by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps for allegedly plotting to kidnap his boss in a bid to extort N1.5m from him in Ekiti State.
The Ekiti State NSCDC Commandant, John Fayemi, said the suspect wrote a letter with a fictitious identity to his boss in Ado Ekiti in December, threatening to kidnap him if he failed to deposit N1.5m into a bank account.
Fayemi, who stated this while parading Olayinka alongside two other suspects arrested by the command for different crimes in the New Year, said the 21-year-old was arrested by men of the counter-terrorism squad for threatening to kidnap his employer.
He said, “Upon discreet investigation, the suspect was arrested on January 8, 2022. The suspect was a sales boy of the victim, but he cooked up a letter using a strange name and account number and demanded a sum of N1.5m or else his employer would be kidnapped.
“But for the quick response of my men, he was botched after a discreet operation. He used a fictitious name, account and telephone number with the intention to defraud his employer. We tracked the phone number and he was arrested. He would be charged to court on completion of ongoing investigation.”
Olayinka, an indigene of Osun State, said what he did was only an attempt to raise money for Christmas from his boss.
He said, “I did not mean to kidnap him. I thought the threat would give me money. My intention was only to collect money to celebrate Christmas. That was why I wrote the letter threatening to kidnap my boss. I later sent the account where the N1.5m would be paid. The money was not paid before I was arrested.”
Also paraded was a 21-year-old man, Ayodeji Fanas, who allegedly stole N500,000 under the guise of helping his victim to purchase a vehicle, and one Daniel Emmanuel, who was alleged to have stolen fabricated metal.