From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
A father of four children, Sunday Odey whose first two children were reportedly kidnapped at 16 Nibo Street in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State has appealed for government’s intervention towards the recovery of the kids.
The about 40-year-old truck driver with a construction company said that he was away for work on December 22, 2023 when he received a phone call that both his first son and first daughter were seized by yet-to-be-known persons within his neighbourhood.
Odey said that the missing seven years old Master Samuel Chisom Odey with his immediate younger sister, Miss Divine Chizoba Odey (5), were Primary 2 and Nursery 3 pupils, respectively, of Obegu Inyimagu Community Primary School, Abakaliki, before the incident.
Odey whose children are still missing, one year after, further disclosed that his children had paid casual visit to the family of his pastor friend within the area before the sorrowful day that they were kidnapped while coming out from their place of visit: “My children usually play together with the pastor’s children in the man’s apartment and sometimes, they would collectively come to my house too.
“I had returned to Abakaliki just a day after the incident and asked the pastor about what happened, he simply told me that my children got missing after they had gone out of his house.”
He told Daily Sun that a strange car was conspicuously parked within the place during the children’s stay at their friends’ house and alleged that occupants of the said vehicle could be responsible for his misfortune.
He lamented that he lost his job in the cause of searching for the whereabouts of his two kids, before he got the present employment with another construction firm. He appealed for assistances from every quarter to rescue the victims.
The distressed man revealed that he recently received a call from a strange number and an unidentified person, around September 2024. He said that the caller hurriedly linked him with his little daughter for a brief interaction.
Odey lamented that he had exhausted his resources on the matter.