68 days after: No Clues on Missing Kids

We are still searching for them – police

The police are not helping – parents

By Abolaji Adebayo and Olushola Okewole

Sixty-eight days after she was declared missing, the police and parents are yet to unravel the whereabouts of 4-year old Victoria Gbadudu who disappeared from Flat 5, Block 200, Jakande Estate, Oke-Afa Ejigbo on August 9, this year, leaving her guardian, Mrs. Victoria Enababor in grief.
The unresolved problem is giving Mrs. Enababor sleepless nights prompting her to seek the help of spiritualists with the gift of telling the future to guide her search.

There was also a suggestion that Victoria’s mother, Mrs. Gbadudu might no longer like the idea of her daughter living with a guardian when she could take up her upkeep.

Mrs. Enababor told ECHONEWS that based on the suspicion, the police had investigated the mother but could still not come out with any positive result on the whereabouts of the child.

She said she has been moving from the police stations to religious houses and that she was told by pastors that the girl is still alive safe, just being held captive by some wicked people that wanted the child she has been taking care of since she was just six months old away from her.

On the reports from the police, Enobabor said the police have not been saying anything of recent on the child as she has not been going there constantly, noting that the last time she visited police station was when the police asked for the phone number of the child’s biological mother who abandoned her at birth.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that the family has concluded to constantly monitor the mother’s house at Sangotedo, Ajah are of Lagos State to see if the child is there before informing the police.
In a similar occurrence, the two 4-year old kids who were also declared missing at Ilasamaja in Isolo Local Council Development Area barely five days after the case of Victoria Gbadudu was reported are also yet to be found.

ECHONEWS reported in August that Rapheal Ogunbowale and Godwin Mbachu who were neighbours were both declared missing on Wednesday, August 14, 2019 from their parents’ residence at No 10, Oluwakemi Street, Ilasmaja, Isolo Lagos.

It was gathered that seven suspects have been arrested and charged to the Magistrate court, Oyingbo in connection with the case.

According to one of the fathers of the missing children, Mr. Oluwaseun Ogunwole, two suspects who were living within the community identified as Christian and John Chizom were initially arrested.
Ogunwole disclosed that some people called him on phone demanding money to help find out the children.

He said those five people were traced through their phone numbers and tracked by the police and that they were all charged to court as suspects as well.

He told ECHONEWS that they were in the court on Wednesday last week and that they were asked to re-appear at the court on November 19, 2019 for further questioning of the suspects.

The suspects were kept in police custody at anti-Kidnapping Department in Surulere.
Ogunwole, who was not satisfied with the court proceedings and the police attitude to the case, claimed that despite the fact that a witness came to tell the police that he saw one of the two suspects arrested in the community with the children, the police did not drill them well enough to get the fact before charging them to court.

He said they, the parents of the missing children, were not interested in the court proceedings but to get back their children.

Commenting on the cases, the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana told ECHONEWS that the police have not rested in searching for the missing children, saying investigation was still going on.

“Investigation is a gradual process, the police do not rest, we continue the investigation, it is a gradual process,” he said.

However, in response to Mr. Ogunwole’s claim that the police did not drill the suspects, Elkana said the police have no reason or right to subject suspect to any form of torture or drilling once he has been charged to court.

“Should we torture the suspects to death for him to know we do our work? The suspects have already been charged to court and that is the right thing the police should do, let the court do its work.”