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From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
After over six months, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Kwaghter Ager has continued to agonize over their five-year-old daughter who went missing. They, however, said they have never stopped praying, waiting and hoping that, some day, God will answer their prayers and their daughter, Shimawueseter, would be returned to them.
Shimawueseter Kwaghter, a five-year old girl, went missing on August 15, 2022. She was the third of five children of her parents.
On that fateful day, she was forcefully taken along with her seven-year-old elder brother, Teryima Kwaghter, by strange men on a motorcycle who accosted them along the way in Nyon community of Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
According to her brother, the men who took them quickly headed to the North Bank area of Makurdi, dropped him by the roadside and took off with his younger sister.
Since then, it has been months of misery and truama for the family as they wonder each day where she is, who took her, for what purpose and how the little girl is faring without the care of her parents.
It is even more truamatizing to think that their daughter could have been trafficked or used for ritual purposes.
Narrating their story, the grief-stricken mother, Rosemary Kwaghter, said: “On that fateful day, my husband had asked the children to meet him in Nyon, where he was working, to collect money from him to give to his mother, their grandmother.
“The children left the house and went to meet their father as he requested. I was at home and didn’t know what transpired there but I was expecting them to come back home soon as the place was not far from home.
“According to my son, on their way home, they met two men on a bike and they stopped and offered them a ride. He told the children to escort him to a shop to buy something. The children directed them to a nearby shop but they refused and insisted that the children should come with them to the shop, which was a bit farther away.
“The children still refused and when when they turned to go, the two men forcefully took them and drove off to North Bank.”
Mrs. Kwaghter suddenly stopped talking to this reporter and murmured to herself, saying: “That North Bank is a bad place, every crime is committed in that area. Every child that is killed in this Makurdi is either taken or killed there, including young girls.”
As Mrs. Kwaghter narrated the story, she broke down in tears from time to time and, each time, this reporter held her hands in silence and patted her on the shoulders in consolation until she could find her voice again.
She added: “When they got to North Bank, the men dropped the brother along a street and asked him to wait for them there. While he stood there, he watched helplessly as they rode out of sight.
“The poor boy waited for long and when there was no sight of his younger sister, he began to cry. He was crying and walking the unknown street for hours and, about 8pm, someone saw him and inquired why he was crying.
“When he narrated the story to the stranger, the man took him to the North Bank Police Station. When they got to the police station, they asked him if he could lead them to where the motorcyclist dropped him, he said he could and actually led them there. But there was no sign of them.”
Mrs. Kwaghter, who recalled that she didn’t bother when she didn’t see the children earlier, added: “At first, I thought they were playing at their grandmother’s as usual and that was why they had not come back. But when we didn’t see them later, I started panicking and went to my husband to see if they were still with him. But they were not there.
“Being children, I thought they might be playing somewhere around the corner. So, I went round Nyon and Tse Adi where we live, thinking they were playing with their mates but my search did not yield any fruit. My heart sank and I started panicking and till now we have not seem my child.”
Also, the grief-stricken father, Kwaghter Ager, said it was a market day and his mother, who usually went to the bush market, was going to purchase food items. He said he needed her to assist them.
He further stated that, when he sent for the children, they didn’t come on time and before they arrived his mother had come, taken the money and gone back.
“So, when they came, I asked them to go back home. On their way, they said a certain okada man took them that he would drop them at home. That was the end of the story. They dropped the boy on the road and we have not seen my daughter up till today.
“When they alerted me they were not home, I looked everywhere, including my mother’s house, thinking they were there. My mother joined in the search.
“So, I reported the case at the police station (E and C divisions). I also called the vigilante working in Nyon, Apir and other places to alert them,” he lamented.
Kwaghter, who appealed to the security agencies in the state to help him find his daughter, said he has resorted to God to help him find his child.
“I have not given up hope. We have taken our case to God. We are praying, hoping and waiting that, one day, someone will call me that my child has been found,” he said.
Speaking on Shimawueseter’s case, the Benue State Police Command acknowledged receiving the report. The police public relations officer in the state, Catherine Anene, a superintendent of police, said the case has been a difficult one to trace.
“People cannot even recognize the child. From that point where the brother claimed they dropped him, there was no trace of the suspects,” she said.
Anene, who acknowledged that North Bank was notorious for various forms of crime, said: “The place is also an exit route out of Benue. If you are leaving North Bank, you are going into Nasarawa State and it might be that the child may not end in Benue.”
She recalled that, in the last two years, about three young girls had been reportedly taken to the area and they turned up dead. Anene, who prayed it would not be the same fate for Shimawueseter, said they were collaborating with their colleagues in other states to find missing children and reunite them with their families.
“That is why we collect pictures. Sometimes, the children are very small and cannot talk and this makes it difficult for the police to trace. But we do our best to follow those cases.
“Sometimes, we find them in other states and, when they recover any missing child, the information is passed across the states and through the photos or any other recording we identify them and bring them back home,” she explained.
She said the police were doing their best and would not relent in ridding the state of criminal elements.
