72-year-old victim goes missing again

In 2008, on a day that started out like any other, Cecila Obaikhena, who is now 72, left home for a routine trip to the market in Iruekpen, Edo State, where she resided. That was the last time her family saw her.

Efforts they made to get the police in the state to find her failed, so also were media announcements they made.

Two days after the news broke that some kidnapped persons had been rescued in a forest in Ibadan, Victor Obaikhena with his daughter, Vivian, hurried to the scene from their Lagos home with high hopes of finding their matriarch among the rescued people.

They stumbled on the news of the forest on Monday, alongside their mother’s photograph taken by a photojournalist and recognised her immediately. So they set out with the assurance that they would be reunited with their mother and grandmother after six years.

To their shock, when they got to the site, there was no trace of Mrs. Obaikhena. They were asked to visit Adeoyo Teaching Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan, where some of those rescued had been taken. There, they also met with disappointment. They went to as many police stations as they could with the hope that a miracle would happen.

The Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Olabisi Ilobanafor, said the command has taken up Obaikhena’s case.

“As we speak, Obaikhena’s children are in a patrol vehicle with our officers, combing Ibadan in search of the woman. In fact, my deputy, Inspector Bashiru, is the one with the relatives of the old woman, and they are searching everywhere for her,” she said.

She explained that on the day of the discovery of the den, members of the public got to the crime scene before the police.

“Most people do not know what is called crime scene preservation. As soon as these people got there, they removed chains from the captives’ legs. We were told that some of them that were let loose ran away, while the old woman walked away. Just before the woman walked away, journalists saw her, interviewed her, and took her picture,” Ilobanafor said.

Copyright PUNCH.