No less than 28 people have been detained by the Ondo State Security Network Agency, commonly known as Amotekun, for alleged involvement in various crimes in parts of the state.

Two secondary school girls who were apprehended by the members of the security corps for allegedly fabricating their abduction and extorting ransom from their mother were also among the suspects.

The state commander of the Corps, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, arraigned the girls at the command headquarters in Akure, the state capital, on Monday. He stated that the two female students were 13 and 15 years old. They are in junior secondary school 1 and 3, respectively.

The commander claims that the suspects hid at Oka-Akoko, Akoko South-West Local Government Area, and called their mother pretending to be kidnappers who had taken them and were demanding N100,000.

Adeleye added that the girls pretended to be kidnappers and contacted the ruler of their village, threatening to kill the kidnapped people if the ransom wasn’t paid in 24 hours.

He asserted that the 28 suspects shown today (Monday) demonstrate that kidnapping is their primary criminal activity. He, however, added that they are stepping up their efforts to make sure abductions in Ondo State no longer happen.

“We have people who kidnapped themselves and raised alarm and in our diligent investigations, we were able to unravel the mystery surrounding their disappearance to the extent that they have confessed.”

The chief of Amotekun added that the suspects were apprehended while working with agents of the Department of State Security because the girls’ phone line had been traced to their location.

One of the girls spoke up and admitted to the crime, claiming that her older sister lured her.

The girl, 13 years old, said she and her sister went to their grandmother’s house that day, stayed the night, and left the next morning at about six o’clock. Her (older) sister informed her that she had a scheme to extort money from their mother while they were returning home.

She then disclosed her plan to claim they were abducted and demand N50,000 from their mother as ransom. She continued by saying that her sister had instructed her what to say when they call her mother on the phone.

The young girl added that when they called, they had no idea it was the monarch on the other end, and they threatened to kill “the captives” if they did not pay the ransom in time.