Missing secondary schoolboy found after 24 hours

Taiwo Jimoh

A 17-year-old boy, Nduka Ogbonna, a senior student of Command Secondary School, Ijebu-Ode, who was declared missing by his parents on Monday, has been found the following day.

Ogbonna, it was learnt, left their resident at Alagbado area, a suburb of Lagos, around 7a.m, to Oshodi, where he boarded a commercial bus going to Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State.

Our correspondent gathered that midway into his journey, when his parents called his phone line, it was discovered that it was no longer going. After repeated efforts yielded similar results, his parents and family members became frantic and panicked.

The victim’s elder sister, Chizoma Ogbonna, who spoke with our correspondent on phone yesterday, said she was at home when Nduka left home for school.

She said: “When I returned from where I went to, my mum told me she had not being able to reach Nduka on phone. This was at about around 6p.m. At that period, she was afraid that something bad had happened. She thought that Nduka probably had accident. When my father returned from work, he also called the school management; this was around 8p.m, to know if they had seen him at school. But to our surprise, the school authority said Nduka had not resumed, that they were still waiting for him. It was then my mother started crying, but we hoped in God.

She further said: “My parents have four children. Nduka is the second child. My mother was in distraught. She kept calling the name of the missing boy as if he was inside the house with her.”

Chizoma said that on Monday, after they had made all efforts to locate Nduka without a trace, they went to bed, believing that the search party, which had been constituted, would continue from Oshodi, where he boarded the bus taking him to Ijebu-Ode.

Chizoma added: “When the search party got to the park at Oshodi, the driver of the bus that conveyed him and other passengers to Ijebu-Ode had not returned to Lagos since he embarked on the journey. They returned home and we turned to God. We reported the matter to Mosefejo Police Station. Policemen at control room, Lagos State Command’s Headquarter, Ikeja, promised to get back to us if they found him. We were at home, praying, when my mother suddenly received a text message from him that we should come to Ogolonto in Ikorodu to pick him. There was thunderous shout of halleluya from my mother. That was how I and two other people went straight to Ogolonto area to pick him up. We were surprised to see him lying under the bridge. I rushed to and held him before I knew what was happening, we both started weeping. Since we came back from Ikorodu, he had been sleeping. He told us he trekked for four hours in the bush before he got to somewhere, and saw a signpost that indicated that where he’s was in Ikorodu; that was when he sent the text message.”