This year Christmas and New Year celebrations remain uncertain for the family of Mr. and Mrs Ajalenkoko, as their daughter remains in the captivity of kidnappers since November, because they are unable to meet up with the N10 million ransom demanded by the gunmen.
The 22-year-old lady, Victoria Ajalenkoko, an undergraduate student of the Delta State University, Abraka was on her way to school, when she was kidnapped alongside two other passengers in the vehicle.
The victim, who is a student in the Physics department, boarded a commercial Siena vehicle from Lagos with other passengers going to Abraka, some passengers alighted at Agbor, but few minutes after they left Agbor they were abducted in Owa Yibo village area of Agbor on Wednesday, November 6 and matched into the forest.
Unfortunately, Ajalenkoko and the other two passengers have not been found, while the driver escaped, leaving them behind.
Genesis:
The distraught mother of the victim, Mrs. Patience Ajalenkoko, who spoke with New Telegraph at their residence in the Apapa area of Lagos State, said that it was unfortunate that a month to Christmas and the New Year, their daughter is still not found.
“My husband and I accompanied her to the Motor Park at Mile 2 area of Lagos where she boarded a Siena bus to Abraka, Delta State, where she’s schooling at the State University studying physics.
“My daughter was the first passenger to enter the vehicle, but other passengers later joined her and they left the park around 9am.” She added: “When it was 4pm, I called her to know where she was, she told me they were already in Agbor.
“And I told her to call me when she gets to school at Abraka. After I had waited for her call, when she didn’t call me back, I called her phone around 6pm, her phone was switched off, even her younger ones also call her phone to know where she was, but it was switched off, I became panicky.
“Throughout that day November 6, I called her through the nite, because I was unable to reach her, I couldn’t sleep and even her father too kept calling, we both couldn’t reach her that fateful day.”
My daughter called me:
“The following day, Thursday, November 7, I received a call from her, I then asked her what happened to her that she didn’t pick her calls, telling her that even if her phone battery rundown she should have looked for someone else’s phone to call us to know she had arrived safely to school.
“She suddenly told me that she has been kidnapped, immediately I heard Kidnapped I fell down from where I was sitting. I summoned courage and told her that nothing will happen to her, that she should just continue to pray in the captivity.
“She said it was immediately after they left Agbor going to Abraka, when they heard a gunshot at a village called Owa Yibo, then the kidnappers blocked their vehicle, ordered them to come down and ordered them into the forest, my daughter was crying as she was talking to me, that they threatened to kill her.
“As she was talking to me, one of the kidnappers collected the phone from her and told me we have kidnapped your daughter, go and bring ten million naira.”
She added that when the kidnapper was talking to her, she thought it was those who rescued her daughter not until he demanded for ten million naira ransom from her.
“I even prayed for the kidnapper for helping my daughter, but they told me to shut my mouth and told me to just get them the N10 million that they demanded for and he put off the phone, since then the kidnappers have not called back.”
The distraught mother lamented that she doesn’t know the condition of her daughter now, it was over a month she was abducted, even the school management have also made efforts.
“Till now my husband and I have not received any further calls from them again. Another student who was from Iyana Isashi, Lagos was among those abducted with an elderly man going to Obiarukwu to see her sister.
“Some of the passengers alighted at Agbor, while leaving behind my daughter and two other passengers.”
Motor Park:
“After the incident I went to the park in Lagos to check if they are aware of the incident, I was surprised when the manager of the park told me he was aware of the incident, but just decided not to tell me and other parents whose children boarded from their park.
“I told the manager that if the kidnappers had not called her that means they would never know that they were abducted.
“The other woman whose elder brother was kidnapped went to the park in Delta State, it was at the park in Delta that I was told the driver of the bus escaped and one other student sitting in the front seat escaped.
“I’m appealing to the Delta State government and other security agencies to rescue my daughter and the two other passengers abducted in the vehicle.”
Report to Police “Immediately the incident occurred, I traveled down to Agbor and I spent a week, I visited the Vice Chancellor, the head of department and the course adviser offices of my daughter’s school.
“Before I went to the school, I called one of my daughter’s course mates earlier and narrated what happened to her, the lady told me they had been expecting her at the school, because she promised to return on Wednesday, November 6, on the fateful day She was kidnapped, since I am just walking am not myself anymore.
“I went to the police station investigating the incident at Owa Yibo in Agbor, I was given my daughter’s bags and her phone found in the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle has been avoiding me, I don’t know why? I just want to tell him that my daughter’s luggage was not complete.
“I was able to pick the driver of the vehicle and took him to the station with the woman whose elder brother was also abducted.
“The police begged me and told me that truly they traced the foot path of the kidnappers, but they couldn’t find them.”
University:
“After I left the police station, I went to the Delta State University, Abraka to inform the management of the school of what the police told me.
The school then went to the office of the State Commissioner of Police, CP Femi Abaniwonda to officially report to him at Asaba.
When I asked the VC about the efforts of the police so far, he said it seems he doesn’t understand the police anymore. Claiming the police said they have combed the forest where the kidnappers passed through.
“Police begged me that they are still on the matter. I want Nigerians to help me. I don’t know where to start now. I am afraid, I don’t know what has happened to her, but I have faith in God that he will spare her.
“Since my daughter was kidnapped, my husband and I have not been able to sleep well. A grown up girl, where do I start from. She’s my second child, government of Delta State and the University management should help bring my daughter back, our Christmas is stalled already, how do we celebrate in such a situation where my daughter is nowhere to be found.”
Father
The father of the abducted student, Mr. Babatunde Ajalenkoko, said on the fateful day of the incident, it was he and her mother that dropped her off at the park at mile 2, Lagos.
Mr Babatunde said he also followed her up with phone calls to know where she was. “It was the following day, after I had gone to work that her mother called me that my daughter had been kidnapped.
While I was returning home, the kidnappers called me, then I was on bike. Immediately I received the call from the kidnappers I fell down from the bike with what I was holding, also scattered on the ground.
“On Friday, November 8, the kidnappers called me again and my daughter said they threatened to kill her. I pray for her that they will not kill her.
I asked my daughter, if she told the kidnappers what her father does, that I am a commercial bus driver and I am not the owner of the bus. I also encouraged her. “I heard the kidnappers talking underground, telling me that we don’t have time. Since then, I have not heard from her.
The University has tried, when the Delta State Commissioner of Police phone number was sent to me, I called him to report the incident. “He said he was not aware of such incident, that nobody from the division told him at Asaba.
I was told to appeal to the governor and to arrest the driver of the vehicle that he knew about the incident, because he was not supposed to drive through the road.”
Police:
When contact, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO SP Bright Edafe, said he was not aware of such incident.
He asked if truly the incident happened at Owa Yibo and asked me to call back for update about the incident, but that he had not heard from the kidnapped family members.
He said the command is working on it. “The problem now is that the kidnappers have cut communication from the family members. But we are still going to go after them to rescue the students unhurt,” he assured.