According to news published by Vanguard, a 27-year-old secondary school dropout, Ruth Livinus, has been arrested for staging her own kidnapping in a bid to extort money from her widowed mother. Ruth, who works as a domestic staff member in the Ajah area of Lagos, confessed that she planned the fake kidnapping to gather funds to start a hairdressing salon.>>>CONTINUE FULL READING HERE....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE
Ruth was apprehended along with her boyfriend, Isaac Gabriel, who allegedly suggested the idea to her. The couple’s scheme began in May 2024, when Ruth went missing. Shortly thereafter, her family received a call from an unknown number, claiming Ruth had been kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of five million naira to be paid into a specific account. To add to the fear, they sent a picture of Ruth tied up in a bush path to her mother.
Despite the frightening demands, Ruth’s mother managed to scrape together and pay only 60,000 naira. However, their plot began to unravel when Ruth’s stepsister tracked the phone number used to contact their family. This led the police to the couple’s hideout in the Ikorodu area of Lagos, where they were arrested.
Speaking to journalists after her arrest, Ruth expressed deep regret for her actions. “I wanted to use the money to open a hairdressing shop for myself. My boyfriend, Gabriel, sold the idea to me. We were caught because my stepsister tracked the number used to contact my mother, and that led the police to us. I have only succeeded in collecting 60,000 naira as ransom before we were arrested,” Ruth explained emotionally.
Isaac Gabriel, 24, offered a different version of events, suggesting that Ruth had come up with the idea. “Ruth is a friend; she said she wanted to open a shop, and I told her to tell her mother. She initially suggested we should tell her brother that she was sick, but we concluded that the money that would be sent would not be much. She then said she would lie to her mother that she had been kidnapped. I only supported the idea,” the Benue State-born man stated.>>>CONTINUE FULL READING HERE
