By Albert Akpor
THE sudden disappearance of a 21-year-old boy whose names were given as Friday Isaiah has continued to generate tension in his family with the his mother, Mrs Enoh John Isaiah pointing accusing fingers at the man whose custody Friday was until he was declared missing.

Until his mysterious disappearance on November 12, 2010, Friday, an Isit-Ibom Akwa-Ibom state born senior secondary school certificate holder,  lived with one Mr. Prudent Emechi; an auto-spare parts dealer at ASPANDA market, a popular spare parts market located at the international trade fair complex, along Lagos\Badagry expressway Lagos.

Though detectives from the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti Yaba have since swung into action with a view to unravelling the whereabout of the boy described by his mother as “level headed” the inability of the police to find Friday has plunged the Isaiah family in perpetual agony.

Friday . . . Missing or alive?

A mother’s agony
And like the biblical Rachael who refused to be consoled because of the massacre of her children, Mrs Enoh Isaiah has remained crestfallen one month after her missing boy and swore not to relent until she sets her eyes on the fourth of her five children.  “Do you know what it feels to lose a grown up child like Friday?

He is the fourth of my five children and very obedient too.  When Mr. Prudent Emenechi came to say he needed somebody to be helping him in his business, initially I was reluctant to allow Friday go with him because he was a child after my heart.  But when his father gave his nod, I didn’t have any option to allow him go with him.

Even the man there and then promised to teach Friday the spear-parts trade while staying with him.   He even assured us that he would ensure that he finished he secondary school education.   But sometimes in November last year,  we were told that my son was nowhere to be found and we began to wonder why his Oga has not deemed it fit to let us know about it.  That was why we went to him on November 12, 2010 to accuse him of having knowledge of the disappearance of our child.

However, to our greatest shock, Mr. Prudent instead of giving us cogent reason as to the whereabout of our son,  accused our son of theft.  He said Friday stole his N320,000.00 and ran away to an unknown destination.  How do you reconcile that?  What is money to somebody’s life?”

It is very clear that something terrible has happened to my child; this is an era of money making rituals in the country and we hear regularly how masters used the boy for money rituals.  I am inclined to believing that Friday may have suffered similar fate; God forbid”! laments grieving  Enoh.

Suspect reacts
But Mr. Prudent Emenechi is not in any way,  taking the accusation lightly describing it as cheap blackmail.   He said rather than show appreciation for what he has done for the Isaiah family all they could do is smear and tag him a  ritualist.  He said he took Friday as a house help when he (Friday) was in junior secondary school and saw him through senior secondary school;  questioning why he would now turn to kill or use such a person for money making rituals as claimed by the parents.

And contrary to the parents’ claims that he was indifferent when Friday disappeared from his custody, Mr. Emenechi said immediately it became clear that Friday had absconded from home with his money, he reported the matter to the Trade Fair Police station insisting that the file is there for all to see.  Continuing, Mr. Emenechi said,   “Mr. man, I don’t know why people are so wicked.  Instead of showing appreciation for all that I did for this boy,  the parents are turning to accuse me of what I do not know.

This is too bad.  When I discovered that my N320,000.00 was missing and Friday was nowhere to be found, I ran to the Trade fair Police station and lodged a complaint.  The file is there at the police station.  I even told the parents to come with me to the station but they refused to come with me; instead what I saw was that they went to the SCID.  I have my own children, at least I have two; so why should I use someone else’s child for anything as they are claiming?  To tell you the truth, I am missing him, the children are missing him too.

This was a boy I took from the parents while he was in JSS1 because they complained of financial incapacity; I trained him through senior secondary school level even though during all those times,  he was stealing my money.  There was a time he stole my money and tore the invoice and I discovered that.  He ran away from home and never came back; but I think when the money was finished he went back to his parents to bring him back to me.

And when they came begging, initially I said no, go back to your parents.  But after a time,  I forgave and took him back not knowing that it was their plans to steal bigger amount from me.  If his parents are saying that I have knowledge of his whereabout,  ask them how come his identity card was found at Akwa-Ibom state transport service.  They sent the ID card to me because it bore my address and signature;  only for the police from SCID to come and arrested me.

It is his parents that are hiding him, they know where he is.   If not,  please ask them how was his ID card recovered.  Their plan is not to pay me the stolen money.  But as somebody who believes in God and whose hands are clean, I leave everything to God.  Whatever plans the parents wants to do, I leave everything to God.”