From Felix Ikem, Nsukka
Emmanuel Eze, a father of three from Ohabuenyi village, Okposi Okwu community in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, resident in Lagos State with his family, was upbeat that his business trip to Onitsha, Anambra State, on June 4, 2022, would be a successful outing.
In fact, he had promised his wife that he would reveal the nature of the business to her once he returned from the journey.
However, that was not to be, as Daily Sun gathered that, six weeks after, the 35-year-old businessman was yet to return to his base in Lagos and his whereabouts remain unknown. Eze’s two mobile phone lines have remained switched off since the second day of his journey, with no clue of what might have happened to him.
His elder brother, Ogbonnaya Eze, a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), told our reporter that his sudden disappearance has thrown their family into confusion.
He said his brother went on a business trip from Lagos to Onitsha and was last heard from the next morning, when he was scheduled to meet a friend in Enugu State.
Ogbonnaya explained that his missing brother was into foodstuff business in Lagos and had always sourced goods from the northern part of the country. He wondered the kind of business that brought him down to Onitsha that he did not confide in any members of the family, including his wife.
Ogbonnaya said: “My brother, Emmanuel Eze, came to Onitsha from Lagos for business on June 4. He spoke with his wife in the morning of the following day. He said he had lodged in a hotel in Onitsha. He also called his friend in Enugu and informed him that the business he came to do in Onitsha was not successful. He also said he was leaving the hotel to go down to Enugu to meet his friend, one Onwe Samuel. That was the last time anybody saw or heard from him.
“We reported the matter to both Enugu and Anambra police commands and we have searched for him in all police and army detention facilities in and around Onitsha, without any trace of him.
“Samuel, the friend he was supposed to meet in Enugu, confirmed that he called him and said that he would be coming down to Enugu to see him but he did not visit again as he said. Samuel also confirmed that it was in the morning that he called him, and when he did not see him in the evening he tried his lines but they were all switched off.”
Daily Sun gathered from a family source that investigation by security experts indicated that his two telephone lines went off at the same time between Asaba and Benin-Lagos road on June 5, 2022.
Ogbonnaya appealed to the public to contact the family or the police with any information regarding his brother’s whereabouts and how to rescue him. He said the entire family was traumatized, and his wife, who is pregnant with their fourth child, has been having sleepless nights since the incident.
On her part, wife of the missing man, Mrs. Blessing Emmanuel, said her husband only told her that he would be going to Onitsha for business but did not disclose the nature of the business.
“He told me a day before the trip that he would be going to Onitsha for business. I was surprised and immediately I asked him what kind of business he was going to Onitsha to do, knowing full well that the foodstuffs he sells were usually sourced from the North. But, to my greatest surprise, he answered that he would tell me once he returned from the trip.
“He left Lagos for Onitsha on June 4. So, the following morning, I called his mobile phone number. I called him many times without answer until, after some time, he called back and told me that he was in a hotel room in Onitsha were he lodged and he was getting set to go to Enugu. That was my last conversation with him. Since then, nobody has ever called me or any member of the family to make a demand, assuming it is a case of kidnap, and there is no record of him in any police station in Enugu and in Anambra.
“For over five years that we have been living as husband and wife, he had never travelled and stayed this long with his phones switched off. The whole thing is strange to me; the kids are already asking me, when is dad coming back? And I am pregnant with our fourth child; this is a difficult time for me. I have been praying every now and then for God’s intervention so that he will return home safely,” she said.
Blessing stated that her husband was doing well in his foodstuffs business at Ketu food and commodity market in Lagos and both of them were living peacefully.
Anyone with useful information about the missing man should contact his family via 08034549893 (Joseph) and 08034996621 (Ogbonna) or any police station.