By Evelyn Usman

Mummy, will daddy be home for Christmas? Asked one of Mrs Ose’s children. But in response, his mother who was lost in thought, looked up to heaven as if someone up there had the right answer and with a sigh she replied, “ God will bring him back home”.

Unknown to the child, his family has been thrown into confusion following the mysterious disappearance of their the bread winner, Lucky Ose, three months ago.

Lucky Ose, 55, a car dealer, from Isoko South, left his home in Delta state precisely on September 28, 2011, for Cotonou in Benin Republic to purchase vehicles for one of his numerous customers, with a promise to be back home in a week’s time as habitual of him.

Apprehension, as gathered, set in after Mrs Ose reportedly dialled her husband’s phone number without luck. A member of the family, Mr Jacob Ose, reportedly visited Lagos but was faced with the challenge of how to locate the person that accompanied his brother to Cotonou.

According to Jacob Ose, “the first step we had to take was to get the telephone number of one Dele who accompanied my brother to Cotonou. Dele lives in Ilorin, Kwara state and whenever my brother wanted to travel to Cotonou, he would inform Dele so as to enable them meet in Lagos for onward journey to Cotonou.

“We eventually succeeded in getting Dele’s number. But when my brother’s wife called him, he admitted to have seen my brother off to the park at Maza-Maza, from where he claimed my brother boarded a vehicle to Delta while he boarded another to Ilorin.

“But we became suspicious after another relative called him and he told the person he left my brother at the apartment

Mr Lucky Ose

they both slept. Surprisingly, the next time we called, he refused picking and when he eventually did, he told us it was a wrong number.

“In order to get him, we called again pretending to be car dealers that needed his service. He booked an appointment with us in Lagos. But unknown to him, we had informed the police. Consequently, when he arrived, we drove straight to Ijaniki police station where he was arrested”.

But upon interrogation, Dele told Policemen that the last conversation he had with the missing man was when he (Lucky) informed him he was at Ijebu Ode. In his statement, he also claimed to have slept with his boss (Lucky) in one of his relatives home before they parted ways.

Our dissatisfaction with the Police

Jacob who insisted Dele knew more about his brother’s disappearance said, “ at the station, he told the policemen that he also left for Ilorin same day with my brother, claiming he wrote his name on the manifesto. But when we got to the park in question, his name was not on it as claimed.

“From Ijaniki, the case was transferred to Magoro where it was initially incidented and from there to the Special Anti Robbery Squad, Ikeja. But I must confess that my family is not happy with the way the case was treated at SARS, as the so called Dele was released without our consent.

“All the while he was arrested, nobody showed up as his relative but we were shocked when we got to the station , only to be told his relatives had come for his bail. Even when we initially kicked against the idea of his bail, considering the magnitude of the offense, the policemen ignored us. They simply told us that Dele had not confessed to the allegation. We brought a case for them to investigate, with a view to knowing the fate of my brother. Regrettably, till date, nothing has been heard from them.

“Another area of our dissatisfaction was when MTN requested for a police report to check my brother’s call log. The policemen requested for N50,000 but we only gave them N20,000. At the end, we were only given photocopy of the report. To our astonishment, when we got to MTN, we were told someone had come with the original copy to collect my brother’s call log”. Jacob Ose stated.

Dissatisfied with the investigation, the family petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Hafiz Ringim, requesting that the case be transferred to another station for proper investigation, consequent upon which the IG directed the Federal Special Anti- Robbery Squad, Adeniji Adele to carry out a discreet investigation. Based on investigation carried out by detectives , Dele was re-arrested and is presently undergoing interrogation.

Efforts by Crime Guard to speak with Dele for more clarifications failed as we were directed to see the Commissioner of Police in charge of FEDSARS fight, who unfortunately was not around when we called.

Another member of the family who decried the inability of the Police at SARS to follow up the case to a conclusive end at the beginning regretted the continued disappearance of their bread winner.

“Where could Mr Lucky Ose be at this point in time? If he was kidnapped, then there could have been telephone calls requesting for ransom for his release. If he was involved in an accident, then there could have been calls to confirm so.

“These and more are some of the questions begging for urgent response from us. Our only hope is, first in God and on the ability of operatives of the FEDSARS to unearth the circumstances surrounding the mysterious disappearance of our brother”.