A parent Mrs Onyeka Asibanya and two drivers have been declared missing by the Parent Teachers Association, PTA, Onitsha branch of Maris Brothers Junior Secondary School Uturu Okigwe Abia State.
Nigeriacrime.com gathered that Mrs Asibanya, a resident of Obosi in Idemili North Local Government Area Anambra State and Mrs Jenifer William, a resident of Benin, Edo State, were delegated by the Onitsha Zone PTA of the school to take their 73 school children back to their school on Saturday after the presidential and national assembly election break when they went missing.
According to the Chairman of the Onitsha Zone of the school PTA, Mr Ugochukwu Ugwu, “The Onitsha Zone of Maris Brothers Junior Secondary School Uturu, PTA, comprises of Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi, Asaba and Benin.
“Any time the children are going back to school, we normally gather at Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity Onitsha, the take-off point, and because the children are 73 in number we charter four Coaster buses of Sacred Heart Catholic Church Odakpu Onitsha and that of Catholic Charismatic Renewal, CCRN to convey them and their belongings to school in Uturu, Abia State.
“On that fateful Saturday, we gathered as usual and the two women accompanied the four drivers of the Coaster buses to Uturu and they got to school by 3.30 pm, Mrs William and two of the drivers left immediately for Onitsha to enable her to return to Benin on time.
“However, Mrs Asibanya had to stay behind with the other two drivers to enable the children to be properly admitted into the school before returning to Onitsha.
However, on Sunday, I got a call from our transport manager who informed me that Mrs Asibanya’s children called to inform him that their mother has not returned home since that Saturday. And I immediately posted the information to our platform and we made several calls to the phone of the woman and the two drivers but they were all ringing without anybody picking up the calls.
“The phone of the two drivers later went off but that of Mrs Asibanya was still going through but without anyone picking it up. We decided to engage a phone track to track Mrs Asibanya’s phone and at exactly 7.25 am this morning her phone location indicated Abacha Eke, Egbema Oguta, Local Government Area of Imo State, and that gave us the impression that they may have been kidnapped.
“We have notified the Police in Umuahia Abia State and the DPO in Ohaji Egbema Oguta, Imo State about the incident and the DPO promised they will swing into action. We are, therefore, appealing to the Police in Imo and Abia States to ensure that Mrs Asibanya and the two drivers were rescued.”
“We do not know at what point they may have been abducted but we are working with the information we got from the phone tracking device which indicated Egbema Oguta as the location of the woman’s phone.”
Contacted, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in charge of Ohaji, whose name was simply given as CSP Tochukwu, who earlier declined comment later revealed that they were in the bush on a rescue mission and cannot speak with journalist at the moment.
However, the Imo State Police Command, Police Public Relations Office, PPRO, Mr Henry Okoye, said no such incident has been reported to the state police command, but promised to contact the Ohaji DPO to know what he is doing about the incident.
According to the PPRO, “Assure the parents that there is no need to panic, am sure if the DPO of Ohaji is aware of the incident, he must have swung into action with his men. I assure you that we will mobilize the Police in the area to rescue the woman, the drivers and their buses if it is a case of kidnap.”
“Trust me, now we have this information, our CP will direct the manhunt and arrest of the perpetrators of the dastardly act and the victims will be rescued. No need for the PTA members to panic, they should continue to furnish us with information about the incident.”