Heartbroken widow recounts in pain disappearance of son

For Mrs. Nwakego Ochi, a 70 year old widow, the last three months has been traumatic as well as painful over the sudden disappearance of her son, Ejike Ochi. Ejike, 34, was said to have left his base in Lagos, three months ago to his village in Ezira-ogbu in Enugu state but never returned.

Married with two children, he was said to have told his family that he was travelling for a meeting called by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) but was neither seen at the meeting nor had spoken to anyone since then.

The troubled Mrs. Ochi gave an account to reporters in Enugu at the weekend of how her son suddenly went missing, “We were all in Lagos until June 10 when he told me that he would travel to the village the next day. I had asked what he was going to the village to do since, the last time he visited there was three years ago during the burial of his father.

“He said they actually have a meeting and since it is in Enugu, he would use the opportunity to go to the village. Many of us, including his wife, objected to the travel; but he insisted saying that it was a meeting of the IPOB and that as one of the leaders; he should be in the meeting.

“We agreed and he took off from home very early that day through a public transport. That was the last we have heard or seen him. When there was no call from him that day he left we started calling his number but it ranged out severally. We called our relatives in the village who said they did not see him.

“We started suspecting that something bad may have happened to him when we repeated the call the next day and discovered to our chagrin that his number had been switched off. We began to search for him. We have called the various bus stations that plied the Enugu route that day and looked through their manifest but could not find his name anywhere. We have also reported to police stations to know whether there was any accident and made contacts in some hospitals. As I speak with you, there is no indication anywhere about his where about”.

Mrs. Ochi, who was flanked by Ejike’s wife, Ngozi, is asking the public to assist in the search of her son, whom she said was the bread winner of the family “having taken over the burden of the family since my
husband died. It is a big burden on all of us because I don’t know for how long we will be into this”, Mrs. Ochi said.