Foster Parents Panic As 14-Year-Old Abuja Orphan Goes Missing

Abigail Ayuba, a 14-year-old Nigerian girl, has gone missing in Abuja.

She went missing from her foster family’s home in the Bwari Area Council of Abuja after returning from school on Friday, July 7.

PUNCH Metro reports that family members were suspecting that a woman (name withheld) knew the whereabouts of the orphan who was adopted by relatives after her parent’s death.

The teenager’s guardian, Williams Debo, said the girl’s friends claimed that she told them that the woman asked her to follow her to Asaba, Delta State, where she would “enjoy herself.”

Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Monday, Debo said the family raised the alarm when they did not find the JSS 1 pupil when they returned home on Friday evening.

He said after combing the surroundings that night and on Saturday, a case of a missing person was reported to the police on Sunday.

He said, “On July 7, after closing from school, the people around the compound then said she changed her clothes and left the house.

“When we came back in the evening, we didn’t see her. We started searching for her. I asked her friends, they said Abigail told them that it was one woman that told her to come and stay with her and that she would take her to Asaba.

“When we still didn’t see her on Saturday evening, we went to the police station on Sunday to report. They asked us and the woman to write a statement. Then the police told us to come next Friday but when we went back the following Friday, we didn’t see the woman and her number had been switched off since then.

“Later I received a call from Abigail. She told me she was in Zuba, I asked her where she was in Zuba but she said she didn’t know. I asked her how she got there, she said she was standing at the front of the street and a woman met her and told her to come and stay with her.

“When I asked her about the woman, she said the woman is not around and the call ended. When I tried to reach her again, the number had been switched off.”

Debo added that after the call, he rushed to the police station where he had laid the complaint to give them the number but the policemen on duty sent him back, asking him to keep trying.

“They said I should go back and keep calling the number and if the number rings again, I should tell them so they can go and pick up the suspect,” he said.

He added that he had gone to Zuba many times but could not locate the missing girl.

He said after the policemen at the nearby police station did not make any effort, he escalated the case to the Bwari Police Station.

The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, did not take her calls.

She was yet to reply to the text message sent to her as of press time.