Punch - The family of an 18-year-old boy, Somto Orji, has been thrown into panic since he got missing in the Allen, Ikeja area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Somto, who is incapable of speech, was last seen leaving his parents’ home on Akin Osiyemi Street, off Allen Avenue.
Somto’s mother, Ify, told our correspondent that her son disappeared on November 29, 2013.
She said they only recently moved into the Allen Avenue house and that could be the reason her son did not know the way back home.
She said, “On that day, I was not home because I had gone to the hospital to have an X-ray following a serious car accident I had. My daughter called to inform me that Somto had run off. I learnt that it was when the houseboy opened the door for my daughter to come in that my son ran out of the house.
“The house boy said he chased him, but later turned back, thinking that he would come home soon.
“However, when I came back at 3.39pm, he had not come back. My husband and other people started searching for him. We reported the matter at the Ikeja Police Division.
“We searched the whole of Opebi, Allen, Alausa and Ikeja until 4.30am the following day, which was the monthly environmental sanitation day. Even during the sanitation, police gave us permission and we searched for him but to no avail.”
The victim’s mother said she and her husband later went to the state’s task force on environmental and other offences to check if her son had been arrested, adding that she did not find him there.
She said she also visited all the prisons in the state to no avail.
“We visited task force office at Alausa and we were told that 47 persons had been taken to the Badagry Prison. On getting to Badagry, 47 men were lined up for me to identify, but my son was not there.
“Task force said another 17 persons had been taken to Ikoyi Prison, so we made for Ikoyi,” she said.
Ify said her son was not found at Ikoyi Prison and she and her husband went to Kirikiri Prisons where 20 people had been remanded following a raid. She said her son was not found there as well.
She said she visited the Special Anti-Robbery Squad Ikeja, Area G Police Command, Ogba; as well as four police stations within Oshodi area, but she was told that no mute person had been arrested, while she was even allowed to see the detained suspects.
“We went to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital as well as the mortuary, but we did not see him. We went to Ministry of Youth and Culture and NAPTIP (National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other related matters), but my son was not in any of these places,” she said.
The victim’s mother said after looking everywhere for her son, she was relying on divine help to finding him.
She said she had recently lost one of her children who was 19.
While crying profusely, she said, “My son was not born dumb but he suddenly lost his ability to speak at the age of seven.
Due to his hyperactivity, he was not able to stay in school and cannot write and doesn’t understand sign language but he can hear. He is 5ft5 and has a chocolate skin colour.
“My fist child died of Kidney disease during her first year in University of Lagos, I cannot lose another child.”
When contacted on the telephone, Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, said she had not been briefed, promising to call back. This, she had not done as of the time of going to the press.
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