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• Whereabouts of 21-year-old Chinedu Egejuru unknown 8 months after allegedly boarding Imo-bound bus from Lagos
• Troubled father alleges foul play, abduction
From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Egejuru family of Obohia in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area, Imo State, is distraught and destabilised. Eight months after a 21-year-old son of the family, Chinedu Egejuru, who allegedly boarded a vehicle from Lagos to Mbaise, disappeared and has yet to be seen.
For the Egejurus and members of their kindred, Chinedu’s mysterious disappearance still seems like a fairytale or a cock-and-bull story. In fact, what initially looked like a huge joke has turned to a stark reality especially to the head of the family, Mr Simon Egejuru who is anxiously seeking to see his son again before joining his ancestors.
•Missing Chinedu Egejuru
The trauma of Chinedu’s disappearance has taken its toll on the senior Egejuru who is almost bedridden, having been struck by stroke.
Chinedu belongs to the family of seven being raised by their sick father who was trying to make ends meet for them with his menial job before he was hit by stroke in 2021 in Enugu State where he was a tanker driver.
His ailment forced the man and his family to retire to his village in Mbaise, Imo State, since his wife’s petty trading could not do much to give the family minimal standard of living.
• Chinedu purportedly standing beside the Mbaise bound bus in Lagos
Mrs Josephine Egejuru, wife to Simon Egejuru’s late brother had approached and begged him to allow Chinedu join her daughter, Chioma and the spouse, Christian Uchegbu, in the Central African country of Gabon. The young man was to assist them in their business in Gabon.
But the turn of event has made Mr Egejuru regret his decision allowing his son move to Gabon with his cousin and her husband.
The story told is that Chinedu went to Gabon and after a while, complaints came that he was not doing well including that he might have joined a bad gang, and was tampering with the master’s money. Following the development, Egejuru asked that his niece and her spouse should bring his son back home.
• Mr Simon Egejuru
The young man was said to have been brought down to Lagos and was put in a bus heading to Mbaise in Imo State. But till date, he is nowhere to be found.
Narrating his ordeal, Chinedu’s father said: “I don’t know which story to believe again. Josephine (his sister-in-law) came and begged me to release my son to her daughter in Gabon to assist them in their electronics business. After thinking over it, I gave my consent.
“They took Chinedu to Gabon and few months later, they told me the young man had been behaving strangely. They accused him of raping women and stealing in Gabon.
“They said he was going out with bad boys and taking different kinds of hard drugs and had been frolicking with all kinds of women over there.
“When I heard what they said, I asked them to bring him back home for me. Let me examine him myself because I was surprised about all those accusations.
“The Chinedu I brought up can never behave in such manner. He was brought up well in the Lord, like every of his sibling. He finished his secondary school and desired to learn a trade.
“He chose to learn how to repair generators and was good in it before he was taken to Gabon. Well, since they said he has become a bad boy, I asked them to bring him home for me, but that has become a mystery since then, as I’m yet to set my eyes on my son till date.”
Chinedu’s guardians, Chioma and her husband claimed they booked a flight for him and on getting to Lagos, their first daughter, Adaku, also took him to a transport company where she got a seat for him in a bus at the company’s park in Lagos State enroute to Imo State.
Possibly to authenticate their claim, Mr Egejuru said that a photograph of Chinedu standing beside the transport company’s bus was taken and sent to him via WhatsApp.
But the troubled man said that he was not told that his son was coming back, claiming that if they had alerted him, he would have even made his own arrangement.
He said that they were surprised when his niece, Chioma called from Gabon to inquire if Chinedu had arrived home safely as according to him, the family in Mbaise neither saw nor heard from Chinedu.
“She called me to tell me that my son should be at Ahiara Junction now. I was shocked and I told her she should have called me earlier to make my own arrangements. But Chinedu as she claimed was nowhere to be found at Ahiara Junction, Mbaise.
“We started making enquiry into what happened. We were told by the transport company that nobody bearing Chinedu was booked for a trip to Mbaise that day being April 11, 2023. Instead, when we dug further, the name on the said seat number 462 of the transport company they gave us belonged to the first son of Adaku who claimed to have booked Chinedu in same bus.
“The transport company has cleared us on that and Adaku too admitted that it was her son that was booked for the 462-seat number.
“But Chioma, her husband and daughter, insisted that Chinedu was booked to travel on the bus to Mbaise that day,” he stated.
Although, Egejuru said the matter has been reported to the Divisional Police Station in the town, he stated that it was reported just as a case of a missing person. He said: “I don’t want any problem with any member of the family, so I just reported it as a case of missing person.”
Saturday Sun gathered that other family members have also waded into the matter to see how it could be solved. Egejuru took the case to his maternal home where it was decided that Chinedu’s custodians should declare him wanted in the media.
Obohia community where Chinedu hails from has also tried to settle the matter. They have instructed Egejuru to go to Lagos State especially the purported park where it was claimed that his son was last seen to make further enquiries.
But the man said that he is suspecting some foul play, he is beginning to think that his son was abducted.
“I don’t know what to believe again. It is possible my son has been kidnapped and nobody is telling me the truth. How can a grown up like that disappear for eight months now,” Egejuru queried.
However, when our correspondent contacted Adaku, the lady that was said to have taken Chinedu to the transport company and booked a seat for him, her elder brother, Kingsley Egejuru answered her call. His narration of the incident was not actually different from what Chinedu’s father disclosed.
But in his clarification pertaining to the seat number, Kingsley said that the transport company may have fixed the name of the member of the family who made the booking because “anytime we are travelling to the village, we normally charter the bus and the seat number they are talking about has always been booked with my nephew’s name, probably because it has always been the bus we used to travel home. The number might have cropped up in their system because of that.
“Chinedu, at the insistence of his brother, was taken to the village and when we called the transport company, they said it was only three people that came down at Owerri and not Chinedu.
“Chinedu came down at Ahiara Junction – that’s our village – probably afraid of what he has been doing or something better known to him. He did not get to his final destination. I don’t know, but we’re sure he got to Ahiara Junction. What is happening is the devils work. We are very close as families and don’t have problems with each other.”
The family stated that there was no need making further inquiries at the Imo State Police Command. It was gathered that the Egejurus were already advised to report the matter properly in Lagos State where the incident was assumed to have taken place, since Chinedu reportedly boarded the bus in Lagos.
But the senior Egejuru, Chinedu’s father is helpless owing to his deteriorating health coupled with his very weak finances. He has not been able to be much involved in the search for his son. The implication is that his 21-year-old son is still not accounted for. He is therefore crying out for help from any quarters. “I am hopeless,” he bemoaned.
“My health is failing me and I can’t see my son. I need help. Anybody who knows how to help, including the authorities and civil society groups, should help me,” the distraught Simon Egejuru pleaded.
