How ‘Love For Soccer’ Made Nigerian Teenager To Mislead Kano Police Command Over Fake Spanish Ancestry

What began as a puzzling case of a “missing Spanish teenager” in Kano State has turned into a story of sheer deception or mischief, as a Nigerian teenage boy admitted he fabricated his foreign identity out of his love for football and fun.

The teenager, Yusuf Saminu, who was found roaming Dadin Kowa village in Doguwa local government area of Kano State, had claimed to be a Spanish citizen named Alex Ansol, who just arrived Nigeria from Spain in company of his family members via the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

According to a press release signed by the Kano State Police Command late last week after discovering Yusuf while roaming the Dadin Kowa village, he claimed to the Police that he lost contact with the rest of his family members somewhere between Jos and Saminaka road in Kaduna State en route Kano State.

The Command quickly put out the press release to announce a case of a missing person with the aim of reuniting ‘Alex Ansol’ with his real ‘Spanish parents’.

However, it turned out that there was no due diligence on the part of the Doguwa Divisional Police headquarters as further investigations by the State Police Command revealed the teenager’s true identity as 16-year-old Nigerian named Yusuf Saminu, and not ‘Alex Ansol’ from Spain as claimed by the teenager.

Speaking in viral video on social media after being reunited with his family, Yusuf confessed to misleading Police authorities, but added that no one influenced his actions. “I spoke to the police in English language throughout and no one influenced me to do this,” he said. “I just changed my name to Alex. I surfed the internet to find the name of an area in Spain, which I gave to the police as my home address.”

He claimed that his fascination with football partly informed his desire to travel to Spain, though he maintained the act was put together “just for fun.”

His father, Saminu Yusuf Kayarda, explained that the teenager was staying in Jos, Plateau State, with a relative while arrangements were being made for his admission into a boarding school, before he went missing.

“I saw his picture that the police posted and the details that he was from Spain, which shocked me,” the father, who has separated from Yusuf’s mother, said. “I still wanted to verify if he was my missing son, so I went to the police station. At first, they didn’t allow me to see him until I brought his mother along. After confirmation, we were reunited.”

Kayarda praised the police for their handling of the situation, noting that officers catered for the teenager while in Police custody based on the fake identity he presented. “They even sourced the kind of food he said he was eating in Spain for him—fish, eggs and others,” he added.

LEADERSHIP reports that in a statement issued on Monday, April 6, 2026, the Kano State Police Command’s spokesperson, CSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, said the puzzling matter had been resolved following a thorough investigation.

According to the statement, the teen’s parents were identified as Saminu Yusuf, 44, from Lere local government area of Kaduna State, and Habiba Alhassan Adam, 35, from Plateau State. The police also disclosed that the parents had been separated for over 13 years.

Yusuf was thereafter formally handed over to his parents at the Doguwa Police Division in Kano State.

The command appreciated the role of the media and the public in sharing information that helped reunite the boy with his real family.