Missing schoolboy found 24 hours later

A 17-year-old boy, Nduka Ogbonna, a senior student of Command Secondary School, Ijebu-Ode, who was declared missing by his parents on Monday, has been found.

Ogbonna, it was learnt, left their residence at Alagbado area, a suburb of Lagos, about 7a.m. for Oshodi, where he boarded a commercial bus going to Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State.

But midway into his journey, when his parents called his phone line, it was discovered that it was no longer going. After repeated efforts yielded similar results, his parents and family members became frantic.

The victim’s elder sister, Chizoma Ogbonna, who spoke with our correspondent on the phone yesterday, said she was at home when Nduka left home for school.

She said: “When I returned from where I went to, my mum told me she had not been able to reach Nduka on the phone. This was about 6p.m. At that period, she was afraid that something bad had happened. She thought that Nduka probably had accident. When my father returned from work, he also called the school management; this was about 8p.m, to know if they had seen him at school. But to our surprise, the school authorities said Nduka had not resumed, that they were still waiting for him. It was then my mother started crying, but we hoped in God.

“My parents have four children. Nduka is the second child. My mother was distraught. She kept calling the name of the missing boy as if he was inside the house with her.”

Chizoma said that on Monday, after they had made all efforts to locate Nduka without a trace, they went to bed, believing that the search party, which had been constituted, would continue from Oshodi, where he boarded the bus taking him to Ijebu-Ode.

She added: “When the search party got to the park at Oshodi, the driver of the bus that conveyed him and other passengers to Ijebu-Ode had not returned to Lagos since he embarked on the journey. They returned home and we turned to God. We reported the matter to Mosafejo Police Station. Policemen in the control room, Lagos State Command’s Headquarters, Ikeja, promised to get back to us if they found him.

“We were at home, praying, when my mother suddenly received a text message from him that we should come to Ogolonto in Ikorodu to pick him. There was thunderous shout of hallelujah from my mother. That was how I and two other people went straight to Ogolonto area to pick him up. We were surprised to see him lying under the bridge. I rushed and held him. Before I knew what was happening, we both started weeping. Since we came back from Ikorodu, he had been sleeping. He told us he trekked for four hours in the bush before he got to somewhere, and saw a signpost that indicated that he was in Ikorodu; that was when he sent the text message.”