Ogun Teacher Kidnaps WAEC Student, Dumps Body in River as Police Take Action
- A trusted private school teacher and choir master lured his 16-year-old former student to a coaching class under false pretenses
- The victim was drugged with sleeping tablets, dumped in a river, and her family still paid N500,000 in ransom
- The suspect admitted spending almost all the ransom money on online sports betting before his arrest by Ogun State police
A 30-year-old teacher and church choir leader in Ogun state has been accused of masterminding the abduction and death of a 16-year-old former student who was preparing to retake her WAEC examinations.
Police identified the suspect as Nathaniel Baiyegun, a teacher at a private school in Ogijo. Investigators alleged that he lured the teenager to a coaching session he organised for candidates preparing for JAMB and WAEC examinations before she disappeared.
Source: Getty Images
As reported by Vanguard, the victim had reportedly completed secondary school last year but failed English Language and Mathematics. She was said to have enrolled in extra lessons to improve her results.
How did the teenager disappear?
According to accounts gathered by investigators, the girl left home on April 8 after informing her family she was attending a coaching class. She never returned.
Per Punch, her relatives later received a phone call from an unknown person demanding N3 million for her release. After negotiations, the family reportedly raised N500,000 and transferred the money to secure her freedom.
The teenager, however, did not come back alive. Her body was later discovered in a river in Ogijo.
Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit arrested Baiyegun weeks after the incident. Police sources alleged that the suspect had previously engaged in internet fraud activities and had at some point requested unclad photographs from the deceased.
Investigators also claimed he attempted to pressure the teenager into a relationship with a friend identified simply as Sola.
During interrogation, Baiyegun denied intentionally killing the girl. He admitted arranging the kidnap plot but insisted her death was accidental.
“She was one of the students in my former school. She was not my direct student because she was in the humanities, while I teach only science students. I was not teaching her class,” he said.
The suspect claimed he reconnected with the teenager after she approached him while he was filming content for his Instagram page. He said he later invited her to join his coaching programme after she told him she intended to rewrite her examinations.
Source: Original
What suspect said about ransom plot?
Baiyegun further alleged that the fake kidnap idea was designed to extort money from the victim’s wealthy relative.
“That was why we planned a fake kidnap. The intention was to collect money from her family,” he stated.
He said he kept the teenager in an uncompleted building near the school premises and later gave her sleeping tablets after she complained about discomfort at the location.
According to him, he returned days later and found her struggling to breathe.
“I discovered she was gasping for breath. I quickly stopped a motorcycle and took her to a river at MTN area and dumped her body there,” he said.
The suspect admitted collecting the N500,000 ransom from the family even after the teenager had died.
“Yes, her father sent N500,000 to me, but I didn’t tell him that his daughter was dead,” he confessed.
Asked how he spent the money, Baiyegun replied:
“I spent almost all the money on online sports betting and I regret it now.”
Police spokesperson DSP Oluseyi Babaseyi said the command would continue efforts to dismantle criminal networks operating across the state.
Son kidnaps father
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that police in Adamawa state said three men have been arrested over the abduction of an elderly man in a rural community, with investigators alleging that one of the suspects is the victim’s son.
The Adamawa state police command said the arrests followed a joint security operation in Jera village, located in the Malabu District of Fufore local government area.
Source: Legit.ng
