Tobechukwu, Olanrewaju
According to a report on Punch, no fewer than three boys namely;
4-year-old Nliam Tobechukwu, 3-year-old Olanrewaju Obazuaye, and
4-year-old Sunday David, have been declared missing at separate times at
the Tolu Police Division in Ilaje Quarters in the Olodi Apapa area of
Lagos State while playing in front of their houses.
It was learnt that after the latest incident which occurred on
Friday, March 25, 2016, residents suspected that there was a syndicate
monitoring their children and stealing them without arousing suspicion.
The first victim, Olanrewaju, was discovered missing on Sunday,
November 22, 2015, while playing in front of his father’s house on John
Ladipo Street, and in December 2015, David went missing on the same
street, while in February 2016, another unidentified boy was reported to
have gone missing on Ayorinde Street.
On March 25, 2016, Tobechukwu got missing while playing in front of his father’s rented apartment on Iheanacho Street.
It was learnt that all the missing boys lived in Ilaje Quarters in
the Olodi Apapa area, as residents were now living in fear as the police
had yet to find any of the missing boys and had yet to make any arrest.
Nliam Cyprian, Tobechukwu’s father, from Imo State, told reporters
that he had gone to all the police stations under the Area B Command,
Apapa, to write statements on his missing boy.
"It was around 4.30pm on that Friday. I was not at home. I was
at a football viewing centre. Tobechukwu and his siblings were playing
with their mummy in front of our house. When his mother went in and came
out some 30 minutes later, she discovered the boy had gone missing.
"His elder brother, Uzor, said he left him in front of the
house when he went to run an errand. It was around 6pm that my wife
called to inform me on the telephone. She reported the matter at the
Tolu Police Division the same day.
"We live in a storeyed-building and Tobechukwu had gone to
neighbouring streets in the past to play with friends. He is in the
kindergarten. He is the fourth of my five children. I have also gone to
the police stations at Orile, Amukoko and Trinity, as well as the Area B
Command, Apapa.
"A lot of people know him because he is friendly. I have also
been to the state Police Public Relations Department, Ikeja, and it sent
a signal out on the incident," he said.
Zion Obazuaye who is Olanrewaju’s father, told a correspondent that
his boy was also playing in front of the house when he was discovered
missing.
"I was not around on that day. I went to the Apapa area to
collect some money from a friend. It was around 5pm that my wife called
me on the telephone and said Olanrewaju was missing. He is just three.
"The boy was playing with other children. It was when the
mother came out to bathe him and others and take them to church around
5pm that she discovered he was nowhere to be found.
"The shocking thing is after the incident, about three similar
incidents have occurred in this area. He is my second child. The mother
is still disturbed," he aid.
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that
there were some people in the community believed to be working for child
abductors. He enjoined the police to beam their searchlights on Ilaje
Quarters and unravel where the schoolboys were taken to.
"There are some insiders in our area. The time of abduction is
usually when the children are playing in front of their houses or when
their parents must have gone out. We do not know who could be the
informant for the abductors.
"Within Ilaje Quarters, also known as James Mobolaji Johnson
Quarters, child abduction has reached an unbearable peak. I expect the
police to come to our area and investigate the cartel stealing our
children.
"In March 2016, a woman took an apprentice, and three days
later, she left her seven-month baby with the apprentice, who later
escaped with the child."
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