Accountant kidnaps self after stealing N15M from company

According to Punch, Akinola who was the accountant with a lubricant producing firm in the Ikoyi area of the state, fraudulently stole the money which was in the Dollar currency ($50,000), and absconded with the sum which he was directed to withdraw from a bank in the Marina area on Thursday, November 17, 2016.

After stealing the money, he put a call to his boss that he was kidnapped on the way from the bank, saying his abductors dispossessed him of the money and his phones.

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Worried about the development, his boss contacted the police and after a thorough investigation, the police realised that he had faked his own kidnap and was in hiding with the money.

After the operatives arrested him, Akinola confessed to the crime and led them to the fence of a primary school in the Bariga area, where $30,000 he concealed inside a concrete block was recovered.

While parading the suspect, the State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said that he had stripped himself and threw his phones into a river to perfect the abduction ploy.

“The suspect worked with a multinational company in the state. He was sent to withdraw $50,000. After withdrawing the money, he faked his own kidnap and claimed that the kidnappers collected the money.

The police have been able to recover $30,000. He confessed to having given out $15,000. We are making efforts to recover the remaining sum.”

However, while responding to questions by journalists, the Ondo State born Akinola denied faking his own kidnap, saying that one Kingsley who lives in the United Kingdom, colluded with a fraudster to swindle him out of the money.

He added that the said Kingsley and an accomplice hypnotised him, adding that the man had left before it dawned on him that he had been defrauded.

In his narration, he said:

“I am also into music. I used to chat with one Kingsley in the UK, who wanted to help me with my music career.

I chatted with him that day and I told him that I just withdrew $50,000. He told me he needed $15,000. He sent somebody to meet me around Marina to collect the money. It was after the person collected the money and my phones and left that I came to my senses.

I was confused and didn’t know what to do. At that point, I decided to hide the remaining $35,000 at the back of a primary school in Bariga and left for Epe to commit suicide.

On getting there, I changed my mind and reported to the police that I was robbed.

I earn over N120, 000 per month. I didn’t have intention of using the money to promote my music career.

That was not the first time I would withdraw money for the company as an accounting officer. I had withdrawn more than that in the past. I have been working with the company for five years,” he pleaded.

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CP Owoseni has however insisted that Akinola, a father of two, would be charged to court after the conclusion of investigations as the police find it hard to believe his version of the story.