What began as a teenage girl’s determination to rewrite her failed WAEC papers ended in tragedy after a former teacher allegedly lured, kidnapped and killed her before collecting N500,000 ransom from her family.

Nathaniel Baiyegun, a 30-year-old teacher and church choir master, has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command over the death of a 16-year-old WAEC candidate in Ogijo, Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Police investigations revealed that the suspect had allegedly deceived the teenager into attending what he described as an academic coaching class, only to abduct her and demand ransom from her family.

The victim who had reportedly failed Mathematics and English in her previous examination, had reconnected with Baiyegun, her former teacher, after meeting him on April 7 while he was filming content for his Instagram page.

According to the suspect, the girl told him she intended to rewrite the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). He then introduced her to a coaching programme and invited her to his new school the following day.

Baiyegun admitted that he also introduced the teenager to a friend identified simply as Sola, who allegedly wanted a relationship with her.

He claimed the friend demanded sex from the girl, but she declined, saying she was menstruating. Afterwards, she allegedly requested transport fare from him.

The suspect told investigators that they then agreed to stage a fake kidnapping to extort money from her relatives.

In his confessional statement, the suspect said: “I am a teacher at a private school in Ogijo, and she was one of the students in my former school. I am the choir master in my church too. She was not one of my direct students because she was in the humanities, while I teach only science students. I was not teaching her class. I was teaching Physics and Further Mathematics.

“We became very close, but there was no amorous relationship between us. At times, she would go to my table in the staff room and drop gifts for me, even when I was not around.

“That was just it until I deleted her number from my phone and told her not to call me again. She lied to our then principal that she was coming to return my power bank to me, after she was caught at a far-away location. It was true that I gave her my power bank, but she returned it to me at school.

“So, when she called me to ask me to help her lie to the principal that she had come to return my power bank, when he saw her, I was very upset, and I severed my relationship with her.

“I didn’t hear anything from her since then. She had passed out from the former school, and I had also changed schools. It was on April 7, when I was shooting content for my Instagram page, that I saw her again with her friends.

“Before April 7, I saw her sometime last year after her West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). She was the one who even saw me and called me. I asked her if she was writing JAMB, but she told me that she didn’t do well in her O Level results. She failed Mathematics and English, and she wanted to write WAEC again.

“I wished her the best of luck, and she gave me her phone number again. I introduced my JAMB and WAEC coaching class to her and advised her to come to the coaching camp that we were having for other candidates.

“There was one of my friends who had been pestering me that he wanted to date the girl. My friend’s name is Sola. On April 8, I called her to come to my new school. She was at her coaching centre when I called her. My friend was waiting for her at the back of our school.

“At about 5:30pm, she came, but I was already about to go to class. I introduced her to Sola, and they were at the back of our school, and I went to class.

“When. I came back around 6:00pm, I met her at the back of our school. My friend had left, and when I asked her what transpired between them, she told me that my friend demanded sex from her and that she told him that she was on her monthly period.

“At that point, she requested transport fare from me, but I told her that I didn’t have any money on me. That was why we planned a fake kidnap on her. She and I both planned the kidnapping.

“The intention was to collect money from her family. She told me that her father could not afford to pay any ransom, but that she had an uncle who was very rich and could pay. I initiated the kidnapping.

“After our agreement, she asked me to camp her in our school, but because the proprietress is not in Nigeria and she must know, I could not camp her in our school. The proprietress has a way of monitoring the school. I took her to an uncompleted building at the back of our school.

“While she was in the uncompleted building, I used her phone to negotiate a ransom of N3 million from her father. I used her phone to communicate with her father. She complained to me that she could not sleep well the first day that she slept at the uncompleted building.

“After she complained that she was scared and that she could not sleep, I gave her 4 doses of D5 sleeping tablets, and I left her there. I was not around the day after I gave her the drug. I attended our pastor’s father’s burial, and I came back on the night of April 11.

“When I came back from the burial, I went to see her and discovered that she was gasping for breath. I quickly stopped a bike and took her to a river in the MTN area and dumped her body there. I lied to the bike man that she was sick and that I wanted to take her to my aunt for treatment, but I dumped her body in the river.”

Police sources, however, said investigations pointed to a deliberate abduction plan orchestrated by the suspect.

Despite allegedly knowing the girl was dead, Baiyegun continued negotiating with her family and eventually received N500,000 ransom from her father, assuring him falsely that she would be released.

“After everything, the father agreed to pay the ransom, and he sent N500,000 to me, but I didn’t tell him that his daughter was dead. I lied to him that his daughter would be released as soon as the ransom was paid.

“I spent almost all the money on online sports betting, and I regret it now,” said the suspect.

Preliminary police investigations also linked Baiyegun to internet fraud activities. Detectives allegedly discovered that he had at some point requested nude photographs from the teenager, which she allegedly sent to him.

Operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit later tracked and arrested the suspect during investigations into the teenager’s disappearance.

The incident has shocked residents of Ogijo, especially because the suspect served as both a teacher and choir master in a Pentecostal church within the community.

Reacting to the development, the Ogun State Police Command spokesperson, DSP Oluseyi Babaseyi, said the Commissioner of Police (CP) Bode Ojajuni commended the Anti-Kidnapping Unit for the operation and urged residents to remain security conscious.

He said the CP thanked the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Olatunji Disu, for his support and leadership, which have strengthened intelligence-led policing and anti-kidnapping operations in the state.

He assured residents that the command would sustain efforts to dismantle criminal networks, urging the public to provide timely and credible information to security agencies. (The Nation)