Posted by Abiodun Nejo on
A visitor to Pastor Dan Ifeagwu at home and office will make no mistake about his fondness for his only daughter, Flora. His countenance each time he has a cause to discuss the girl betrays his emotions about her.
A visitor to Pastor Dan Ifeagwu at home and office will make no mistake about his fondness for his only daughter, Flora. His countenance each time he has a cause to discuss the girl betrays his emotions about her.
Just as her large-sized photographs adorn the Ifeagwus' residence, the pastor's office at the Federal College of Education, Akoka Lagos, is not left out. There, two beautiful photographs of Flora stand on the lecturer's table, staring endlessly at him.
And each time he beholds the photographs, he feels a deep sense of disappointment that they could not offer any clue as to when his lovely daughter will return home from the den of kidnappers where she has been trapped for five years.
Flora, a 21-year-old second year student of Computer Mathematics at the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta at the time she was last sighted, had the overall best result when she graduated from Federal College Education, Akoka, where she studied computer. She was said to have been kidnapped on November 3, 2000 on her way to Lagos after a Deeper Life Campus Fellowship camp meeting in Ibadan. Since then, the entire Ifeagwu family has been thrown into sadness.
Despite the fact that the search for her by family members and security agents have failed to yield any positive result, her emotionally totured father remains persuaded that she will, one day, come back home.
His belief is not hinged only on the various revelations by renowned religious leaders or the repeated sighting of Flora in his dreams, but also on his conviction that ritual killers cannot triumph over a 'genius, good Christian and kind-hearted person" as Flora.
He said, 'In her entire life, she has always been kind and helpful. Our belief is that people like that are never used for sacrifice. Ritual killers have always thrown out people like that. We believe she will come back home one day, but our Flora has not returned."
It is, however, ironic that there was nobody at the scene of her abduction to rescue her or give a clue to how the girl, who was said to have saved two men from kidnappers, could be freed from the claws of the evil men since 2000.
Ifeagwu told the moving story of how a lecturer from Delta State University, Abraka came to his residence in 2000 to thank Flora for rescuing him when kidnappers threw him out of a moving bus in Lagos.
According to the troubled father, the lecturer, on arrival, told him and his guests that he had come to appreciate the gesture from Flora, who took him to the hospital and took care of him at a point that kidnappers had virtually snuffed life out of him.
Ifeagwu also recalled another time that Flora rescued another man that was thrown out of a moving vehicle by kidnappers in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Ifeagwu, who said the family could not but feel their eldest child's absence, explained that Flora's mother, Elizabeth, had been the worse for it. 'She suffered high blood pressure over it. She almost died. For the remaining three boys, they have all learnt to look up to God.
'There is no day I do not remember her. I want her back. It is always the thing in the family that a member is missing and wanted back. It is almost five years now, how is she feeling, what is she looking like? At the beginning, it was not easy to cope without her, but we have learnt to forgive even the kidnappers. What we want is for them to return our daughter. All I want back is my daughter," he said.
Taking the case to God's court, he said the family, with a strong conviction that Flora was still alive, had been praying and trusting God for her return. According to him, two interdenominational fasting and prayer programmes were being organised yearly on the girl's birthday (March 15) and the date of her kidnap (November 3) to facilitate her return.
However, the hope of the family, which had been living on pure faith in the revelations that Flora would come back alive, was boosted last year when a man named Clement Anaekwe came to their residence and claimed that he saw and interacted with Flora right in the kidnappers' den in a forest.
Clement had told the family that Flora inspired him a lot in the short time they interacted before the kidnappers moved him out of the place to be killed. Accordingly, Clement, who previously did not know anything about the missing Flora, said that the beautiful lady who was kept in a hall meant for victims awaiting execution, told him her story and gave him her parent's address at Gbagada, Lagos.
Going by her experience in the den over the years, she was said to have assured the young man that the kidnappers would not be able to do anything to him as long as he was a genuine Christian. True to it, Clement had a miraculous escape from the place. But since he was not prepared for the escape, he could not take any message for her family. Clement also claimed he could not locate the forest.
Reacting to Clement's account, Ifeagwu said, 'Our faith has been boosted. We now have tangible evidence that she will come back. We are fasting for her. We believe that God has a purpose in all these. God knows what He is doing, we are instruments in his hands."
But the police at Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID), Alagbon, Lagos said investigation was being conducted into the matter.
FCID Spokesman Mr Friday Archibong said the case had been difficult as there was no information that could give any clue about Flora.
He, however, called on anybody who has information about her and other victims to forward such to he police or the press, just as he urged Anaekwe who claimed he saw her at a kidnappers' den to come forward with his story, which he said, could offer a clue.
Just as the Heavens Gate Ministries which Ifeagwu oversees holds praise worship sessions every Wednesday to facilitate the lady's return, the Christian Women Intercessory Fellowship of Nigeria, while declaring a 10-day retreat tagged 'You Push until Flora Ifeagwu Returns", kicking off from June 22, said it was necessary to praise God for such an uncommon miracle.
The Punch, June 18, 2005