Panic as Customs officer goes missing; relative fingered, arrested

By EVELYN USMAN

The just celebrated Christmas and New Year was marked with an expression of woe-begone by family members of a Customs officer, at their Lagos home.

This followed the disappearance of their breadwinner, Mr Awo Iche Awo, on December 12, 2021, without a clue about his whereabouts.

Awo who served in Onne-Eleme, in Rivers State, left for Owerri, Imo State, from where he was to proceed to Lagos on December 12, 2021.

Back in Lagos, the expectation of his family members turned into anxiety, when he could not be reached on his mobile telephone to ascertain his location. Tension heightened two days later after efforts to reach him further proved abortive.

His daughter, Queen, who spoke with Saturday Vanguard, said, “ The last time anyone spoke to him was on the morning of December 12, 2021. He confirmed he was going to be on his way to Lagos that morning, from Owerri.

“I spoke to him on Friday, December 9, 2021, he told me he was going for a friend’s father’s burial in Owerri, on Saturday being December 11, 2021, and that on December 12, 2021, being Sunday, he would leave for Lagos.

“Being a Customs officer, we don’t usually follow him up on calls every day because we might not get him on the phone. When we didn’t get him on the phone that Sunday and Monday, we didn’t panic because he could have broken his journey anyway, or gone back to the office.

“I panicked on Wednesday morning, when my brothers called me from Lagos, that they were yet to see him at home. They said a member of my father’s Club in Lagos, called to ask if my dad was in the house and they said he was yet to come to Lagos.

”That was where the panic started. I had to call my uncles to confirm if my father went to the East or if they had seen him. One of them in Port Harcourt said he was not in the East. He said my father called him on the phone to inform him that he was coming to Lagos. Everybody he spoke to, confirmed he was coming to Lagos.

“Nobody has called us for ransom in case it’s a case of kidnap. When we contacted the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC to confirm if there was an accident involving his car, we were told there was no report of any road crash involving his car.

“ We have contacted the Customs office, my uncle has taken an extract of the missing person to his command at Onne, Port Harcourt, where I was called to state his plate number. I was told they have circulated the plate number around their local command, in order to see if someone drives by in the car. When I contacted the command for the update, there was none”.

Relative arrested

Saturday Vanguard gathered that a relative of the missing Customs officer was arrested and detained by the Imo State Police Command. The suspect was alleged to have threatened to kill the missing Customs officer.

Confirming his arrest, Queen, said, “the suspect is my cousin. He has been in police custody for almost three weeks. We started looking for my father on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, the suspect, whom I have not spoken to for many years, called me on the phone and said he was the one chasing my dad.

I asked what happened, he said he had an agreement on a business contract with my dad but that my dad didn’t honour his part of the bargain. He said he was calling me to inform my dad not to come to the village, that if he did, he would pump 19 bullets into him. Before I could talk, he hung up. I also learned he called other people to make such a threat to my father’s life.

“The police had questioned him up to three times now, he denied the threat initially, but after some time, he agreed. He told the Police he was angry then and that he was not aware of my father’s disappearance. But the Police insist that he won’t be released until my father is found, as that would prove his innocence. Nobody has been able to track his number”, she stated.

Efforts to reach the Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Michael Abattam, failed, as his phone rang severally without response.

But Police sources in Imo state said the investigation into the disappearance of the Customs officer had begun. Sources revealed that detectives had visited the hotel where the missing Customs officer lodged in Owerri but was informed that Awo checked out on December 12, 2021. (Saturday Vanguard)