Yesterday, June 13, Ruth Livinus, a secondary school dropout was apprehended for staging her own kidnapping, confessed that she did so to extort money from her widowed mother, aiming to use the funds to establish a hairdressing salon.
The 27-year-old lady was arrested alongside her live-in-lover, Isaac Gabriel, whom she alleged sold the idea to her.
Parading the lovers alongside 21 other suspects arrested for various crimes at the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, Lagos, the Zonal Public Relations Officer, SP Ayuba Umma, said, “A case of kidnapping was reported to the office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2 Command Headquarters, by one Jona Jumai, that sometime in May 2024, her sister, Ruth Livinus, who works as a domestic staff in the Ajah area of Lagos, went missing.
“Few days later, the family members were contacted via a strange telephone number that Ruth Livinus had been kidnapped and was in the custody of the kidnappers, who demanded a five million naira ransom to be paid into a designated account”.
A picture of her in a bush path, with hands and legs tied, as gathered, was sent to her mother to create fear and force her to meet the kidnappers’ demand. Her mother was said to have managed to pay N60, 000 only, before they were trailed to their hideout in Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Speaking with journalists, Kaduna state-born Ruth, in an emotional tone, expressed regrets over her actions. She said, “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 N60,000 as ransom before we were arrested.”
On his part, her boyfriend, Gabriel, however, said Ruth muted the idea.
According to the 24-year-old, “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 said.
