TikToker Arraigned For Faking Own Kidnap To Attract Followers

The Edo State Police Command has arraigned a content creator, Osarobo Omoyemen, for allegedly faking her own kidnapping to attract online traffic and followers to her TikTok page.

The suspect, aged 24 and popularly known as “Madam Oil Rice”, recently circulated a false statement on social media claiming that she was kidnapped along Upper Sakponba Road in Benin City and later rescued by the police operatives who purportedly detained her at Akpata Police Station and collected the sum of N10,000 as bail.

In the viral video, a voice was heard in the background appealing to viewers to follow her page.

The Command, in a statement by its Spokesperson, CSP Moses Yamu, said the police, on watching the video, commenced investigation, which later revealed that the story was completely fabricated and deliberate.

He said the suspect was arrested and, during interrogation, confessed that she staged the incident to generate online traffic and attract followers to her TikTok page.

Yamu described the content as misleading and capable of inciting hostility against the police, while also triggering unnecessary tension in the state.

“It was also discovered that she deleted an earlier video in which an accomplice in the background was appealing to viewers to follow her page, clearly exposing the motive behind the false alarm.”

He added that the suspect had been identified, arrested, and charged to court.

He said efforts were ongoing to arrest her accomplices and subject them to the full weight of the law.

He warned against the creation and circulation of fake news capable of disturbing the peace and security of the state.(Daily trust)