Abiodun Aderibigbe, the daughter of a missing official of the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Olayemi, says the family’s enquiries about the whereabouts of the 54-year-old indicated that she was abducted in connivance with one of her (Olayemi’s) friends, who is envious of her.
She, however, said there was no concrete evidence to trace the abduction to a particular friend while the family had been kept in the dark over her location for the past three months.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that Olayemi had left Abuja on May 29 in the morning, but did not make it to her destination in Lagos.
It was gathered that she told her mother, who had called her on the telephone that morning, that she was already on her way to Lagos.
Apprehension, however, set in when Olayemi did not arrive in Lagos that day and her telephone line indicated it was not reachable.
Aderibigbe stated that checks run on her mother’s line revealed that she reached Koton Karfi, Kogi State, before her movement became shrouded in mystery.
She said, “My mother was coming to Lagos to see her family. We tried calling her to no avail. I suspected there was fire on the mountain because it was very unlike of her to switch off her phones for long. My grandma said she called her that morning and that she (Olayemi) confirmed to her that she was already on her way to Lagos.
“We went to the park in Abuja where she usually boarded a bus en route to Lagos. Surprisingly, her name was not on the trip’s passenger manifest. We tracked her line and discovered that my grandmother actually spoke to her and that her phone went off at Koton Karfi in Kogi State.
“There was a fatal accident in Ondo State that day. I made findings at the morgue where corpses were deposited. It was confirmed that she was not among the victims. When the whole thing became confusing, the family members went for prayer sessions. Some pastors told us that she was alive and that it was the handiwork of one of her jealous friends. Unfortunately, we cannot make any arrest because we don’t have any proof.”
Aderibigbe, who said the case was reported to the police at the Gwagwalada division in Abuja, expressed fears that her mother’s life was in serious danger, lamenting that the family had not heard from the police.
She said the period of her mother’s missing had been “like a hell,” adding that she had lost count of the number of times she had broken down in tears.
“We have not got any useful information from the police. My prayer is that it does not get to four months before we see her. I pray God save her life. So many people have cashed in on this situation to defraud us. Some people even used the opportunity to get my phone number and ask me out. It is really agonising,” she added.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Federal Capital Territory Command, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, had yet to reply to our correspondent’s text message sent to his line to get update on the incident.