Daud Olatunji

Confusion enveloped Kolobo, Abeokuta, Ogun State when a two-year old Mustapha Ibrahim was found dead in a well near her mother’s shop. The toddler had been declared missing.

Mustapha’s body was found floating in the well hours after a search by his parents and neighbours.

Consequently, the bereaved mother became a host to scores of people who trooped to her house to pay their condolence over the mysterious death of her son.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the mother, on the fateful day, had entrusted her son in care of her nephew living in the neighbourhood and left for the market. She returned to discover the baby missing, then dead.

Mrs Ibrahim, a petty trader, while narrating the saga, said, “Had I know, I would not have left my son, Mustapha, behind, when I was going to the market.”

The nephew was identified as Taiwo Ibrahim and the mother left the son with him at about 9 a.m. when she was leaving for the market three Sundays ago.

...the well

The mother demanded a full blown investigation into the death.

According to her, what would comfort her is knowing the mastermind of the death of her son, while urging the police to investigate the incident.

Ibrahim, the nephew in whose custody the baby was last seen alive, acknowledged that the deceased was kept in his custody by the mother and described the incident as a mystery.

“ I can’t explain what happened, but all I can say is that when we could find him, we were shocked to the marrow,” Taiwo reportedly told the police who visited the scene of incident.

“Initially, we were a bit skeptical because nobody had ever thought that Mustapha could be inside the well, which usually remains open and nothing of this has happened before.

“I could not believe my eyes when we saw his lifeless body floating in the well along with a ten Naira note. We raised the alarm and our neighbours suggested that we contact the police which we did,” he said.

An eye-witness told our correspondent that nobody knew that the boy was in the well until when his mother returned from the market and could not find him and alerted the family as well as the people around.

The eye witness said he had to abandon his job to join the search party for the boy. According to him, many of them had thought that the baby might have been kidnapped by ritualists before” we saw his lifeless body in the well.”

He further said there was a suggestion that the well should be checked after they had spent several hours searching” and we were all shocked when we saw Mustapha’s body floating there.”

Police IG, Ringim

Ogun State police command has transferred the case from Ibara station to the state police headquarters where it was learnt that the state Criminal Investigating Department (CID) has swung into action on the matter.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the matter, saying the case had been transferred to the state police headquarters.

“We are still investigating the death and circumstances leading to the boy’s corpse being found inside the well”, Adejobi told Sunday Vanguard.

He stated that the outcome of the investigation would be made public as soon as it is concluded.