A 15-year-old girl, Rita Clement, who was abducted by unidentified persons
while on her way to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in
the Ikeja area of Lagos State, has returned home.
It
was learnt that Clement was dropped off by her abductors in the Oshodi area on
Wednesday around 9pm, and given money to take a bus back home.
It was reported on Thursday, March 17, 2016, that
Clement, who lived with her relatives on Gboyega Kilo Street in the Ojodu
Berger area, and had UTME registration number 65061660GJ, went missing on
Thursday, March 10.
It
was reported that she was to sit for the exam at 6.30am on the day she went
missing, and her centre was at the West African Examinations Council
International Office on Plot B, Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Lagos.
Clement
sent a text message to her mother’s mobile phone, raising the alarm that she
had been abducted and she did not know the location where she was taken to.
The
matter was said to have been reported at the Ojodu Police Division and
transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja.
Clement
had written in the text message, “Mummy, they took my phone and beat me up
inside the bus. Mummy, I don’t know where they took me to. They made me sleep
and said they will kill me if I ran. Someone gave me the phone, saying I must
return it before they came back. Mummy, please save me.”
The
uncle, Emeka Orazulike, who worked as a pharmacist, had said they had yet to
hear any update from the police, adding that he believed in God that Clement
would return home.
It was learnt on Thursday that Clement walked back
into the family’s apartment at about 9pm on Wednesday.
She
was said to be tired and unable to give the details of her ordeal to the family
members.
It
was gathered that the family on Thursday went to the Ojodu division to make a
statement that the teenager was back.
They,
thereafter, proceeded to the SARS office, Ikeja, where the operatives took
Clement’s statement.
It
was observed that Clement, Orazulike, and three other family members at the
Command headquarters, Ikeja.
The
SARS operatives thereafter kept Clement with them, instructing the family to
come for her in the evening, preventing the teenager from being interviewed by
journalists.
Orazulike,
said the teenager’s narration so far was that she was taken to an unknown
place, but was asked to return home on Wednesday when her captors got tired of
her.
He
said, “For now, we know that she was taken to Abeokuta, Ogun State, by the
abductors. But on Wednesday, the men brought her to Oshodi.
“They
then gave her transport fare to find her way back home. She said the men stated
that she was not their material. She walked into the house yesterday
(Wednesday). We were all surprised.”
The
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said she had
interviewed the girl and her explanation showed an abscondment rather than
being abducted.
She
said, “The girl is back and I have spoken with her. From what she narrated, it
is more of an absconding from home than being abducted. She had been in Abeokuta.
Meanwhile, the police are still investigating to get to the roots of this
matter.”
When
Orazulike was told of the ‘abdscondment theory’, he said the girl had not told
him about that.'
He
said, “We suspect she had been with kidnappers or ritualists. She did not tell
us about running away from home. She made us to believe through the text
message that she was abducted and taken to an area. That is all we know for
now.”
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