70-year-old Woman Goes Missing, Family Blames Police For Negligence

The family of a 70-year-old woman suffering from dementia, Folake Musari, has become distraught over her disappearance from their house in Lagos.

City Round learnt that Musari went missing on Monday after she left her daughter’s house at Waybridge in the Owode Onirin area of the state.

It was gathered that Musari had visited a neighbour who has a shop in front of the house and suddenly stood up and left.

Musari’s daughter, Olubunmi Odewole, who spoke to our correspondent, said her mother was found on Wednesday night by a woman who took her to Ketu Police Station but that she was not allowed to sleep there by officers on duty.

According to her, the good Samaritan alleged that the officers on duty requested for a bribe to allow Musari stay in the station for the night.

Odewole said the woman refused to give the officers a bribe and instead took Musari to the pedestrian bridge at Mile 12 to sleep, adding that they could not find her mother at the bridge the following morning.

She said efforts to find her mother had been unsuccessful since then.

She said, “Around 3pm on Monday, she left the house to play with one of our neighbours in her shop. She stood up from there to walk away and our neighbour asked her where she was going to in the sun, but she told her she could go anywhere her legs could take her to.

“She left and didn’t come back home. Some people on the street said they saw her walking away and some of my neighbours, who were inside commercial buses, confirmed that they saw her walking towards Owode Elede towards Mile 12.

“We have been checking around Mile 12 and its environs and some cobblers there said she used to repair her shoes there.

“On Wednesday morning, when we went to Agiliti, Mile 12, people said they had seen her on Monday walking barefoot and asking for a girl’s name, saying she looked like her granddaughter.

“Another person told us that a woman took her to a church and when we got to the church, we were directed to the woman that brought her, who said she took her to Ketu Police Station around 11pm and begged them to allow her stay for the night.

“She said the officers refused and said she would not be allowed to sleep there unless she (good Samaritan) was going to sleep with her in the station or give them N1,000. The woman said my mother complained that she could not walk again so she took her to the pedestrian bridge at Mile 12 to sleep and told her to go inside the station at daybreak.”

She added that when they got to the pedestrian bridge, Musari was nowhere to be found but some boys told them that they had seen her entering the market there. However, they could not find her in the market.

The 40-year-old daughter, who lamented her mother’s condition and the stress it had caused the family, urged anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact the police, adding that Musari wore a blue and lilac-coloured native attire.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, who confirmed the incident, said the police were working on finding the missing woman and reuniting her with her family.

He, however, denied the claim that the police demanded for a bribe at the Ketu Police Station.

He said, “A case of a 70-year-old missing person was reported at Owode Onirin Police Station and ever since the report was made, the officers at the station have been making effort to find her and reunite her with her family members.

“It is not true that the officers at Ketu Police Station demanded a bribe. The woman that brought her in didn’t give information that her family was looking for her.”