Family accuses police of collecting N4,500 to find missing teenagers

                                                        
The family of two teenagers who went missing about two weeks ago while on an errand in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, have accused the police of demanding the sum of N4,500 before recording the case of missing person and to begin the search for the boys.

This revelation was made by one Moses Odugbo whose two sons, Channing and Daniel, 17 and 19 years respectively, who said that the boys had gone on an errand on September 9, but failed to return home.

The devastated family then made a reports at the Igbogbo Police Division of the state Police Command but the police mandated them to pay the said money so they could buy writing materials with which to report the case as well as sending signals to other divisions in a bid to track the missing boys.

The Ogoja, Cross River State born Odugbo further said that he was so disappointed and had lost faith in the police after they made such a demand during the trying times of his family.

“Daniel was preparing for his UTME, so after the morning devotion, I called him to help me to withdraw N5,000 from the ATM. It was not his first time of going there to withdraw money.

The walking distance between my house and the ATM is about 10 minutes to and fro. But I observed that he didn’t return about 30 minutes later and I called his telephone. He said there was no money in the ATM and he had gone to another place.

As for Channing disappearance, I sent him to get some tins of milk from a shop three houses away.

But 20 minutes later, he didn’t return. I called Daniel and his phone rang for some time, but he didn’t pick it. About some minutes later, the phone was switched off.

I went to the woman selling the milk to know if she saw Channing and she said the two boys were in her shop to buy some tins of milk.

She said afterwards, she noticed they walked in the opposite direction, instead of coming to the house.

I was surprised because they had not even taken their bath that morning or eaten any breafast and when they did not return home throughout that day, I knew something was wrong because they had never done a thing like that before.

We went to the Sagamu Road Police Division to report the case but they referred us to the Igbogbo Police Division.

At the station, I met a woman and she asked if I could write the statement myself and I said yes. She said I have to pay for the writing materials and I gave her N200. But she rejected the money and said it was too small.

I then gave her N500 and she took down the statement. She asked me to go to the back of the building. A man there told me that they would need the children’s photos and money to send signal to all the surrounding divisions.

He said I will pay N1, 000 for every signal. I had to return home to raise N4,000 which I paid for the signal but he never sent the signal.

I later reported to the Ijede Police Division where I met a policeman who helped me to send the signal without collecting any money from me.

Right there, I could hear as the message was being radioed. The Igbogbo police are a fraud; despite the money they collected, they didn’t do anything,”  Odugbo lamented.