A Mystery Disappearance

Yakubu Alkali, Commissioner of Police, Lagos State

Three youngmen disappear after attending the burial ceremony of a church members' mother at Ayesule Village in Adodo Local Government Area of Ogun State
By Oji Odu
It is now over three weeks since the frantic efforts to locate the trio of Seun Omotuwa, Elijah Akinbowale and Femi Uma. Are they dead? Were they kidnapped? Have they become another case of ritual murder or did they just disappear to seek greener pastures elsewhere? These and other questions have been nagging the minds of both friends and relations of the three youths who are in their early 20’s.
“The mysterious disappearance of the three young men including my son, Seun is making my blood pressure rise. Before now, I do not suffer from such disease. If my son is dead and I know, I think I can manage. But in this case, nobody knows what has befallen him and his friends. It is pathetic, and I wonder how my wife would have felt if she were alive,” 70 year-old, Pa Mose, Segun’s father lamented to The Source.
The missing trio were said to have left their homes in Badagry on September 3, 2011 on a brand new motorcycle with no registration number for Ayesule village in Adodo Local Government Area (LGA) of Ogun state to attend the wake keep and final burial rites of the mother of one of their church members, Mama Titi. They attend the FourSquare Bible Church. Ever since, no news has been heard of their whereabouts.
When contacted by their families, Mama Titi confirmed that Seun, Elijah and Femi attended the final burial ceremony of her late mother. She said that was all she knew as she thought they must have left when the other invitees did.
Further, Pa Mose said that with Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Okon Uma of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Adeniji, Lagos involved, as his brother, Femi is one of the missing boys, he felt a bit confident that action will be expedited to find them. This confidence was heightened due to the assurances by Okon that quick action was being taken on the case. But this was not to be because uptil September 16, 2011, there was no formal report to the police on the missing persons.
When The Source contacted Okon on why the case had not been formerly reported to the Police, 13 days after the boys went missing, he simply said that he had reported the matter but that he did not understand the delay in making a formal entry of the case by the police.
“You know I am also a victim in this case because one of the missing persons, is my brother which is the more reason why I am interested in getting to the root of this matter.
“When I reported this case at the police station, the way the officer in charge responded put me off, and I didn’t want to be embarrassed. I just allowed them be. When the other relatives of the missing persons came, I just did not understand what they were saying,” Okon said.
But two days after the chat with Okon, he informed The Source that they had received information on the three missing persons and were on their way to the place to confirm the report. He said their informan told them that the missing boys were armed robbers who operated with the said unregistered motorbike at the border area between Nigeria and Benin Republic. The information later turned out to be false.
All efforts as Okon claimed, to track down those using the mobile phones of the missing trio through MTN, one of the nation’s telecommunication operators have not yielded result because of some logistics problems which they said would be rectified. When The Source called the number belonging to the missing Elijah, a young man’s voice replied: “Wrong Number,” and immediately switched it off. He has refused to pick the call ever since.
However, at Morogbo Divisional Police Headquarters, Badagry where the case was officially reported, 13 days after the incident, a Police officer said there was no urgency by the families to pursue the case because of the time already wasted, as anything could have happened.
“May be, they had an accident on their way back, or were robbed by thieves of their bike who may have murdered them if they showed any resistance. You know these robbers can be heartless and ruthless, he said.
“What I am saying is that, we will do our best with your help to get information in solving this mystery disappearance because we have to first appeal to various commands both in Lagos State and Ogun State to investigate the case. And this will take some time,” the Police officer said.
Additional report by Femi Adetunbi.