By Chiemelie Ezeobi
A teenager, Margaret Adiya Ikumu, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for faking her own death and using the corpse of her employer’s mother, who just died, to make it real.
The suspect, who has since been arrested, admitted that she faked her own death on social media to avoid financial pressure from her mother.
According to the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana, the command had received a petition signed by one Tony Iji on behalf of the suspect’s family that she was dead and buried by some of her friends without their knowledge.
Iji also furnished the police with Facebook chats with the suspect’s alleged friends, Marvelous Mary and Nneka Buddy, where they claimed that Ikumu was dead and they had buried her accordingly.
He said further attempts to reach out to the two friends proved abortive as the numbers they provided were switched off and they had no idea of their residence.
Acting on the strength of the petition, the police had swung into action.
Elkana said: “The petitioners stated that there attention was drawn to a post on Facebook stating that the said Margaret Adiya died few days ago and was secretly buried by her two friends.
“The family further stated that they were able to establish contact with the said friends who confirmed to them that their daughter is dead.
“That they were instructed by Margaret not to allow members of her family know anything about her dead and that they were authorised by the deceased person to secretly bury her.
“To make them believe that the girl was dead, they sent WhatsApp chats to a member of the girl’s family with picture of a casket showing that the girl was buried.
“The known phone number of the girl was permanently switched off. The family also got in touch with a man on phone who claimed to be her boyfriend. He corroborated the claim that she is dead.”
While investigating, Elkana said the police eventually found out that the girl was alive and working as a house maid in an estate at Ajah.
In her statement, Ikumu confessed to have created the Facebook account and posted her obituary with intent to keep her family away from her, claiming her mother was constantly putting financial pressure on her.
She also admitted using her employer daughter’s photograph, Dr Nimechi Ugorji (without her knowledge) in the fictitious Facebook account she created, as profile picture.
