Police parade house help who faked her kidnap to swindle N5m out of her mother
By Eberechi Obinagwam
A 28-year-old lady, Ruth Livinus, who faked her kidnap to extort money from her mother, has been paraded in Lagos.
The Zonal Public Relations Officer of the police Anti-Piracy Unit who busted the crime, SP Umma T. Ayuba, said the office had a complaint of reported kidnapping from one Jona Jumai.
The report was that in May 2024 her sister, Ruth Livinus who works as domestic staff in Ajah Area of Lagos was missing.
A few days later, her family was contacted via a strange telephone number that Ruth Livinus had been kidnapped and in custody of the kidnappers who demanded N5 million ransom be paid into a designated account.
The crack team used the phone number to trail and arrest the callers in their hideout in the Ikorodu Area of Lagos State.
“Investigation revealed that it was the purported kidnap victim Ruth Livinus, her boyfriend Isaac Gabriel and one Jeremiah Boniface (her cousin) who prearranged the kidnap to extort monies from her employer and family members.
“Interestingly, Ruth parents are not wealthy because she lives with her mother. It was her aunt who took her to where she is working as a domestic staff. Her aunt told the police on the report that she left the house without any information to her boss.
“So the boss was worried and reached her aunt who brought her to work. Initially, the aunt was accused of using her for ritual. So the aunt has to come and report to the police that this is what is happening. It was at that point that the acclaimed kidnappers called her mother requesting for N5m ransom.
“The mother was rallying around looking for how to raise that amount. After that, the operatives through technology tracked all the numbers and arrested all of them there. The lady told her boyfriend that her mother had a landed property that she could sell to get the money. She knew what she was doing,” the PRO said while reading the report of the parade to newsmen.
Speaking to newsmen about why she staged her kidnap, Ruth said wanted to use the money to open her hair-dressing shop.
The lady who hails from Kaduna State said it was her boyfriend, Gabriel who gave her the idea of staging her kidnap. She claimed to have known him through her cousin.
When asked how the police arrested her, she said her step sister tracked the number and found one suspect, “That was how the man directed the police to the place where we were arrested.”
She told newsmen that she regretted her action. She also denied saying her mom had a land to sell. “I regret my actions. My mom did not have a land anywhere. I just did that for her to look for the money and send. My dad is late,” she said.
Isaac Gabriel, Ruth’s boyfriend said she told him that she wanted to start a business and didn’t have the money. “And I asked her how and she said maybe she will tell her mother that she is sick but she later said that if she used that way the money that would come out will not be much. She suggested kidnap. I asked if that one will come out much and she said yes because she has asked her mother for money and she refused that is why she wants to wicked her mother too so I supported her. I am into network marketing,” he said.