Posted by By JULIANA FRANCIS on
The mysterious disappearance of a young man who went to board a luxury bus at the MazaMaza area of Lagos has left his family in shock. The victim, identified as Ozioma Chinyere was said to have boarded the bus on his way to the East and has not been seen ever since.
The mysterious disappearance of a young man who went to board a luxury bus at the MazaMaza area of Lagos has left his family in shock. The victim, identified as Ozioma Chinyere was said to have boarded the bus on his way to the East and has not been seen ever since.
His anxious family feared he could have been killed. They claimed that four staff of Dan Dollars Transport Company were the last people that saw the victim. They also insisted that it was those four persons who could explain the puzzling disappearance of the man.
A member of the family, identified as Chief Ede, said: 'All we want is his body! They said he is dead, let them produce his corpse. Even if it was his skeleton, let us have it and bury it according to traditional rite."
On how the search for the missing man started, his cousin, Obiyo Chinyere said: We waited from December 24 to 26. We became worried. On the 27th I called Lagos, I was told he left on the 24th at about 7pm to take the night bus. Our sister, Chioma, said she saw him off to MazaMaza, where he bought a ticket for East but didn't wait for him to board the bus."
Another brother, identified as Ifeanyi said: 'We met the station manager of Dan Dollars branch in Owerri. They said none of their buses was involved in accident that day or night. We made sure to rule out any possibility of road accident."
Running from pillar to post, the family reported his missing in both Lagos and Owerri. His pictures were said to have been placed in some National dailies and electronic media.
Accepting to leave all in the hands of God, the family has gone back home when another ray of light came.
Obiye said he was at the office on April 1 in Lagos, when one of his colleagues called him that someone just called from Dan Dollars, asking if he knew anybody called Ozioma? Obiyo said: 'we went over there. The man introduced himself as Dan Dollars manager. He said he had my brother's luggage. It contained his keys, handset, wallet and a bag, but one of the bags was missing. He had tow bags. The missing portable bag was for his money. I asked him where the owner of the things was, he said he didn't know."
Obiye further told Daily Sun that the manager explained that it was the company escort who searched Ozioma and recovered those things from him, when he found him lying unconscious on one of the waiting seats that night of December 24. according to the suspects, Ozioma appeared to have been drugged or drunk.
Obiyo said: 'The escort explained he removed the above items, handed them to the manager and told him to call police and give Ozioma medical attention because he was not fit to travel." The manager had also claimed that he was about to take charge of the situation when another staff identified as Chukwudi, said that Ozioma was his friend. Chukwudi promised to take care of Ozioma by making sure he got home safely. When police arrested Chukwudi, he denied Ozioma being his friend and further explained that he did not take care of the victim as he promised because another staff asked him if he knew the implication of what he was doing. When he was asked the next day about Ozioma by the company manager, he said the man was okay.
Daily Sun gathered that Chukwudi had also revealed to police that the toilet attendant called him the next day, 25, to whisper that Ozioma who was then lying on the corridor leading to the toilet appeared to have died. That was the last anyone saw of him.
The manager said he was not in a position to speak to Daily Sun but advised the reporter to meet the coordinator of Dan Dollars, who also declined comment, saying, 'I have no comments. I have nothing to say on the matter!"