A 38-year-old mother of two, Catherine (surname withheld), has disclosed how she planned with her child’s home lesson teacher, identified as Nansik, to stage a kidnap of her two-year-old son, Jesse, in order to get money from her husband.
Catherine and two suspected accomplices, Nansik and Emmanuel, were arrested by operatives of the Federal Intelligence Department-Intelligence Response Team (FID-IRT) in Jos, Plateau State, after a reported case of child kidnapping.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Ani Iniedu, in a statement, said that Catherine, in conspiracy with her first child’s home teacher, allegedly staged the kidnap of her two-year-old son and created the impression that the child was truly abducted.
To back the abduction plot, a third suspect, one Emmanuel, was contacted and asked to make calls to the child’s grandmother to demand a ?15 million ransom, while the child was kept in Nansik’s residence.
CSP Iniedu stated: ‘However, the child was subsequently located and safely rescued. After receiving medical attention, he was handed over to his biological father.’
Saturday Tribune learnt that before the toddler’s planned kidnap was carried out, the mother had given the teacher all necessary things, including diapers, beverages, and food items that the boy would need. It was further gathered that immediately Nansik got to her house with the boy, she allegedly removed the cloth he wore and dressed him up in a female cloth as a disguise so that he would not be recognised. Nansik also allegedly bought an unregistered SIM card, contacted Emmanuel, and asked him to call the boy’s grandmother to demand for N15 million ransom.
Saturday Tribune learnt that following the report of case, the conversation between Catherine and Nansik was intercepted on July 23, four days after the abduction. This led to Nansik’s tracking by the IRT operatives, her arrest, and the rescue of the toddler who, oblivious of what was happening, was found in a relaxing position in the planner’s house. Catherine and Emmanuel were also apprehended after Nansik’s confession.
In an interview, Catherine, who hails from Nasarawa State, told Saturday Tribune that she lived comfortably with her husband in Jos, Plateau State, before she was badly influenced by Nansik.
According to Catherine, ‘Nansik, who gave her name to us as Praise, has been my first child’s home lesson teacher for the past five years. Then, she was working in the school that my daughter was attending. She complained to me that my daughter was not catching up, asking my family to do something about it. She suggested an extra lesson for the child, which I discussed with my husband, and he agreed. Since then, she has been with us.’
Narrating how her son’s staged kidnap was planned, Catherine said it began with an issue she had with her husband. ‘Towards the end of January, we went for a hangout as a couple. As we were talking, he asked me if I had money with me, and I replied in the negative. Then, he asked: ‘What if an emergency arises?’ I responded by saying he was always around to tackle any emergency, and he laughed over it. The following day, my husband transferred N200,000 into my account. When I saw it, I asked him what it was for, and he told me to keep it in case of any emergency, so that I would have money to use. But as for me, I have everything in my house. My husband provides everything for me. He even dropped an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card with cash in it for me to use anytime I needed anything. We call it utility card.
‘So, when he gave me the N200,000, I paid it as a contribution into a cooperative group I belong to so that by the end of the year, I would use it to buy some things. On June 21, I needed to go for my husband’s uncle’s child’s dedication, so, on June 20, I told him I needed money to fuel the car while we were on the phone. He was not around then, and I didn’t have much fuel in my car. He asked me to use the utility card to purchase N50,000 fuel.
‘Coincidentally, my neighbour was going to the same event, and she followed me. However, on getting to the filling station, the card couldn’t dispense money. I told my neighbour to help me out, with the thought that I would get the money from my husband to refund her, but he was very angry with me when I told him, saying that it was the reason he gave me N200,000 in case of any emergency. I needed to pay back the N50,000 I borrowed from my neighbour due to pressure, while attempts to use the utility card were unsuccessful as it was telling us ‘transaction failed’.
‘My husband was shouting at me in a video call, asking for the reason I paid the money as a contribution. He angrily told me to pay back our neighbour’s N50,000 and send the remaining N150,000 to him. I started pleading with him, but he refused to listen to me.
‘Nansik, who was in our house at that time overheard him because we placed the call on the speaker. At the end of the call, she asked why my husband was behaving rashly like he just did. I eventually got the money from my mother to pay my neighbour though I didn’t tell her what happened. After that, my husband kept calling me almost every day, asking for the remaining N150,000. I didn’t know where to get it from because the money he gave me was already in the contribution account.
‘That was when Nansik told me of a woman, a firewood seller, who planned self-kidnap, and her husband paid ransom, which she shared with those she planned the kidnap with. She advised me to do the same thing so that I would have money and even help her because she gave birth to a child out of wedlock.
‘I told her that if I tried it, my husband would believe it to be a deception and would not pay anything. However, she kept pestering me. Then in July, she said we should stage the kidnap of my son whom my husband loves so much. She said I should leave everything for her to handle. Initially, I said we should ask for N3 million as ransom, but she suggested a higher amount so that after negotiations, it would come to the amount I desired. When I expressed my fear that our actions would end my marriage if my husband got to know about my involvement, she swore that she would not disclose it even if she was caught.’
On how the plan was carried out, Catherine said: ‘Nansik suggested my grandmother’s house which she said would be easier to come to because it was easily accessible. On July 19, we went to Grandma’s house after leaving the church. Nansik brought a tricycle, and my son, who was very familiar with her, ran to meet her when he saw her outside. That was how he was taken away.
‘Later, someone she contracted to join her called grandma, demanding for N15 million. The day that she picked the child, I felt it deep within me. I went inside and cried, but nobody knew what was going on. I tried to call her, because the amount demanded was too high, but her lines were switched off. After some days, the matter escalated, When I eventually got her, she said she would come to my mother-in-law’s house where we stayed after the incident.’
How the bubble burst
‘The police called me, asking me to come to the station, that they had rescued my child. When I got there, I saw Nansik and the child, and during the interrogation, she told them that I was the one who planned everything with her.
?At first, I was scared and denied it, but when she kept insisting and giving details of our conversation, I had no choice but to confess the truth.’
?When asked whether she realised the gravity of what she did, the mother of two replied: ‘I am very, very sorry. It was the work of the devil. I was overwhelmed and confused because of the pressure from my husband to return the money, and Nansik manipulated me into doing it. I deeply regret my actions.’
In her confession, 34-year-old Nansik admitted her participation in the kidnap of the child, but said she was drawn into a ransom plan by the child’s mother. Nansik, who claimed to be an NCE certificate holder and combines teaching with poultry farming and private lesson coaching, said the plan emerged from conversations with the child’s mother over her financial difficulties and alleged disagreement with her husband.
Nansik also admitted that she eventually kidnapped the child and kept him while attempts were made to demand ransom from the father. According to her, the scheme began during one of his regular lesson visits to Catherine’s home when she complained about financial problems and pressure from her husband over money.
Nansik said the conversation eventually shifted to ways of raising money, with Catherine saying that if she chose self-kidnap, her husband would not pay anything because of the issue they had.
She added that it was Catherine who identified her son as the person her husband was particularly fond of and said he would be willing to pay if the boy was kidnapped.
The suspect denied an allegation that she introduced the idea of kidnapping by citing a woman who had allegedly carried out a similar act. ‘There is no woman I know on this planet that’s selling firewood that kidnapped herself. That is a pure lie,’ she said. Instead, Nansik claimed the child’s mother was the person who raised the possibility of kidnapping and cited a previous kidnapping incident within her family. ‘She even gave me an instance of the kidnap. She brought this issue. She gave me an instance of a kidnap in their own family, and the ransom was paid,’ she said.
The suspect said the plan became more concrete after Catherine allegedly provided her with food items and discussed how the child would be kept. ‘She gave me Milo, Golden Morn, and then rice,’ Nansik told Saturday Tribune. She said the plan was later activated after a telephone conversation on July 16. According to her, Catherine wanted the operation carried out on a Sunday because the family was expected to travel to Abuja. Nansik further confessed that she was given N7,000 to facilitate the operation, including money for a SIM card and transportation to pick up the child.
She said that she subsequently brought Emmanuel into the plan as she considered him close enough to approach for assistance.
According to the suspect, Emmanuel initially agreed to participate but later backed out after discovering that the kidnapped child’s photograph had gone viral on social media when he saw photographs of the missing child circulating online.
Asked who first demanded the ransom, Nansik identified Emmanuel, but stated that she subsequently made other ransom calls using the altered voice enabled by Emmanuel before he backed out.
The third suspect in the staged kidnap ring, 32-year-old Emmanuel, admitted to his involvement in the kidnapping of Catherine’s child, saying he was asked to demand ransom, for which he was promised N2 million if the operation succeeded. The suspect, who is a painter and 400-level student of a state university in the North Central, said that Nansik contacted him and told him about the plan, initially describing it as a fake kidnapping. ‘She told me that I would be the one to speak for the ransom,’ he said.
Emmanuel said he demanded N15 million from the child’s grandmother, later reducing it to N10 million after she said the family could not afford the initial demand. He also confessed that attempts were made to disguise his voice to sound like a male Hausa-speaking kidnapper.
However, he said he later became uncomfortable with the plan and withdrew after the voice-changing attempt failed.
‘I told Nansik that this thing was not working,’ he said. The suspect stated further that he returned to his painting job but was arrested on Thursday, July 23.
The FPRO stated that the suspects would be charged to court after the conclusion of investigation.