You most definitely have seen a poster, or heard on the radio or by word of mouth, about a missing person. Probably on the notice board or while surfing the net. You stop a bit to take a look at the picture, and almost immediately, you realize you don’t know this person. But you stare at the picture for a few seconds longer, not because you want to memorize this face and join the search party, no, you are just wondering, "where is this person right now?", then you move along or scroll by, going about your usual way. And the kindest of you would whisper a few prayers and go on as well.

But what happens to those they are missing from? their thoughts are not quite different from yours you see, “where is my son/wife/brother/cousin/friend?’’ only that it lasts all the while they’re missing, opposed to your few seconds. Dying is very different from missing. Imagine reading a book and suddenly you realise there are no chapters any more, the book has been ripped apart and you can’t find the closing half, you feel infuriated at the fact that you can’t ever get to know how this story has ended. When someone dies, you know their graves, you know all that led to that particular end, there’s a closure to the story , be it you see it as a proper one or not. Now you are forced to give it whatever ending, about a thousand cross your mind. Friends and families are trying to fill in the gaps, thinking, rituals maybe, or trafficking?. It’s a grim book, it has a grim ending.

Well, I reside over here, SW of Nigeria, and accept it or not this diabolic money ritual issue is quite prominent in this locale. With the increase in number of yahoo boys lately, business as turned a bit sour and they have turned to yahoo+. I assume the reader is familiar with this terms and does not think I’m referring to some email service providers. I had some sort of first hand experience with this missing person case. This story i’m about to tell you is quite the grotesque one, and if you don’t have the stomach for such, I’ll advise you move to the next paragraph. Now to begin, this cousin came visiting, he has not been seen neither by his parents nor the victimized family in about 5 years I should add, and suddenly he came around. he’s in his 20’s and the boy he came for is about 5 years old. he came to the house met his cousins, a boy and a girl, the older one-the girl, was a bit sick, so he had his way much easier. he claimed he wanted to get fish from their mum (their mum sells fish) and that the 5yr old should lead the way to his mama’s shop. And so did the devilman lure the boy away. later that night, the whole community was thrown into fear and confusion, searching for this little boy. and what was on everybody’s mind, albeit unspoken, was-kidnapped for money rituals. To cut the long story short, they later received a call about a boy found at the end of town by the riverbank. the boy, with his clothes completely drenched with blood, said he(the evil man) took him to this abattoir, placed his head on a piece of wood, kept on striking his neck with a knife, blood everywhere, him screaming and then stopping to, whilst pretending to be dead. The criminal then put him in a sack and placed him into a pit by the riverbank, probably hoping to carry him later at darker hours. But the boy climbed out of the pit, found a good samaritan, and so did he escape death by a hair’s breadth, leaving him scarred both physically and mentally forever. Two lessons to be learnt here. One, accepting crime in the society would surely get back at you(they knew he was a yahoo boy) and two, when someone goes missing, most times, someone close is responsible.

Back to how the families and friends feel. I have seen people lose their phones and how they acted, you must have to. Now this is a human being not a phone, imagine the trauma, the pain and how they realize, little by little, things can never be normal again. In some cases, the parents split, if they have kids, the kids become guarded. they might relocate and try to start anew. maybe thanks to time , they might sort of heal, but it never just goes away, and any little happening; from the smell of a perfume or the giggle of another, even after 20 years, can trigger memories and keep them thinking, "where are you right now?"

let be going

The number of Missing Persons in Nigeria keeps increasing by the day. It’s a sad reality.
Please use the Missing Persons Platform to list this information.

The Platform allows you to share information on missing and unidentified persons. It also helps you create a poster you can share on Social Media.
www.missingpersonsplatform.com

Hope this helps.