She flew from Cameroon to Nigeria for an online boyfriend, found out he was married, then told police she'd been kidnapped. What happened next had Lagos SCID officers shaking their heads.

The Lagos State Police Command has picked up 26 foreign nationals after a kidnapping alarm turned out to be pure cruise. According to the report, the group is made up of 19 Chadians and seven Cameroonians.

It started on 16 June when a 22-year-old Cameroonian woman walked into a station and said she'd been abducted. Her story? She'd travelled to Nigeria to meet a 39-year-old Chadian man she'd been dating online, only to realise the guy was already married.

Police took it seriously at first. There were communication issues because she couldn't speak English fluently, so officers from Area N Command in Ijede, Ikorodu, launched a full rescue operation. The case was quickly escalated by Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Tijani, who transferred it to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Yaba.

When operatives traced the address she gave as her "kidnap den", they didn't find chains and masked men. They found a flat full of other foreigners, aged between 19 and 50, including four women.

All 26 were rounded up. Police sources say they told investigators they were into a networking business linked to a company called Ignite. The wahala? Most couldn't produce valid travel documents, and some are suspected to have entered Nigeria through irregular routes.

They're now being profiled by the Diplomatic and Foreigners Desk at SCID under Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Dayo Akinbisehin, with immigration checks ongoing to sort out who is here legally and who isn't.

Investigations are still running, and police say they'll decide the next steps once profiling is done. For now, it's a cautionary tale about online love, bad decisions, and wasting police time.

Credit: reporting via cbinews.tv

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