“My name is Oluwadare Akanmu. I have been working with Sharon's parents for six years now. I was working with the parents from Port Harcourt and they brought me to Lagos and I have been living with them. I am a welder and I want to start life so I went to tell Sharon's father to assist me with N250,000 so that I can stand on my own. He gave me N40,000 for one of the tools but the money was not enough. So one day, something came over me and I decided to carry Sharon away so that the parents will give me the N500,000 so I can start life.”

Mr. Akanmu said he went to Sharon's school at about 2.35pm that day, picked her up and took her to his friend, Ibrahim's house at Alakoko, a Lagos suburb, where he kept her for eight days. He said his N15,000 monthly salary was not enough to sustain him and he decided to kidnap Sharon so that he could demand a ransom of N500,000 to start a welding shop.

“When I took Sharon to my friend's house, I took care of her and I was asking for N500,000 ransom, but my friends were demanding N10 million. On Monday, I became fed up with the whole kidnap thing and I called Sharon's father and told him where we were. So that was how police came and arrested me and took Sharon away. I feel bad about what I did,” Mr Akanmu said.