Ogun Police Nab 8 Foreigners Over Staged Abduction, Ransom Fraud

​ABEOKUTA – In a major breakthrough against cross-border financial crime, detectives attached to the Ogun State Police Command have smashed a notorious transnational criminal syndicate specializing in staged kidnappings and ransom extortion.

​The sting operation, executed by the Ifo Divisional Police Headquarters under the leadership of the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Olabisi Kamorudeen, led to the immediate arrest of eight foreign nationals. The suspects, who hail from various West African countries, were apprehended at their hideout in Adiyan Town, within the Agbado area of Ogun State.

​The police identified the arrested suspects as:

• ​Zakaria Zawadogo (34, Burkina Faso)
• ​Cheik El-Mehdi (23, Mauritania)
• ​Suren Neta (25, Ivory Coast)
• ​Koffi Breno (36, Ivory Coast)
• ​Gondo Treso (32, Ivory Coast)
• ​Kunuji Ezekiel (27, Republic of Benin)
• ​Kougasi John (Ivory Coast)
• ​Hemue Blinsi (30, Côte d’Ivoire)

​The Plot Unravels

​The bubble burst for the international syndicate on June 6, 2026, when a public-spirited informant alerted the police to suspicious activities. According to security sources, the plot began in May 2026 when one of the suspects, 23-year-old Mauritanian national Cheik El-Mehdi, contacted his family overseas with a frantic claim that he had been abducted by gunmen in Nigeria.

​To heighten the panic and compel immediate payment, another member of the syndicate, Zakaria Zawadogo, allegedly took over negotiations, placing calls to El-Mehdi’s family abroad. Zawadogo issued chilling threats, warning that the “hostage” would be executed if a hefty ransom was not paid swiftly.

​Swift Police Intervention

​Unbeknownst to the syndicate, law enforcement was quietly closing in. Upon receiving the intelligence report, CSP Kamorudeen’s team deployed advanced technical intelligence and sustained surveillance, tracking the electronic footprints of the suspects to their base in Adiyan Town.

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​A tactical raid on the location caught the suspects off guard, effectively halting what could have been a highly lucrative, cross-border extortion scheme. Preliminary police investigations have since established that the entire abduction was a carefully orchestrated hoax designed to exploit the emotions of the suspect’s family for financial gain.

​The Ogun State Police Command has reiterated its zero-tolerance stance on criminal elements using the state as a haven for local or international syndicates. A full-scale investigation is currently underway to determine if the group has local collaborators and to uncover the depth of their operations across West Africa. The suspects are expected to be charged in court upon the conclusion of investigations.