How Parents Allegedly Staged Their Daughter's Kidnap To Repay N17m Bank Loan

The police had in a statement on Tuesday, July 27, declared Stephanie missing.

According to the spokesperson of the command, DSP Bright Edafe, "Stephine of Okumagba Estate, Delta State who is 5ft tall, dark in complexion, with no tribal marks and who speaks Pidgin English and Urhobo languages fluently had reportedly left home on July 19, 2021 at about 0820hrs to work at Okumagba Estate and had not returned since thenÔÇØ.

In a recent development, PUNCH gathered that the parents were arrested on Sunday night (August 1)after the police operatives who had been monitoring the incident received intelligence reports that the parents had allegedly staged their daughter's abduction.

Sources however said that the parents of Stephanie who reside at Olomu Street in Warri were still being interrogated by the Police B-Division, Warri as of Monday evening.

A source alleged that the missing Stephanie, a staff of Heritage Bank, located at Okumagba Estate, Warri, Delta State had helped her parents to secure a loan of N17 million from the bank.

It was learnt that the couple borrowed the money from the bank for business development but failed to pay back the loan for a long period while the bank had been on their throat to return the loan, to no avail.

It was also gathered that the couple in an attempt to raise money to offset the loan had purportedly resorted to stage-managing their daughter's kidnap.

Meanwhile, the alleged kidnap victim was yet to be released, according to the sources.

When contacted, the acting police public relations officer for Delta State Command, DSP Bright Edafe said he could not confirm the report as such had not been brought to his knowledge as of the time of filing this report.