A civil servant, Olufunmilola Adetola, whose husband, Olaoluwa, works with a telecoms company, tells GRACE EDEMA how she has been trying to no avail towards ensuring his release after he was kidnapped over three months ago
How long have you been married to your husband, Mr Olaoluwa?
My marriage is 16 years old, and we have three children.
How did your husband go missing?
I wasn’t with my husband when he went missing. He doesn’t work here in Ibadan. He works with Globacom in Owerri, Imo State. On the 6th of May, my mother-in-law called me in the evening, asking if I had spoken with my husband.
She said she had been trying to reach him, but his phone was ringing without him picking up. I told her we hadn’t spoken that day, but I would call him when I got home because I was on my way back from church.
When I got home, I called him. A strange person picked up. I asked to speak to the owner of the phone, and the person promised he would give him the phone. I thought to myself, ‘This is unlike my husband.’ He has never given his phone to anyone before.
I called again and politely said, ‘Please, I want to talk to the owner of this phone.’ The person immediately started insulting me, calling me mad, stupid, and an idiot — then cut the line. I tried calling several more times, but he didn’t pick up again.
By that time, it was already maybe a few minutes to 9 pm. or just past 9 pm. I knew my husband should have been home because anytime he leaves the office, he calls me. He is a football fan, and he usually says he watches football matches in the office before leaving.
Anytime he leaves the office like that, he will call me and say he will watch a match later. But that night, I thought, this was already past 9 pm. I decided to call his housemate.
When I called, his housemate said he had also been trying to reach my husband’s mother, because my husband had not been picking up his calls. I told him my husband had not picked mine either, but someone else had answered his phone.
So I told the housemate, ‘Come out straight to me; what is going on?’ They call my husband ‘Ola’ over there, his full name is Olaoluwa. Then the housemate said, ‘I heard that they had kidnapped Ola.’ I said no one would kidnap him!
I was completely confused at that point. I didn’t know what to do, so I called his colleagues in the office. When I spoke to them, they said the same thing: ‘Ola has been kidnapped.’
They told me it happened the day he went to a site in Imo State with two expatriates. They said they heard gunshots and tried to leave the place, but they couldn’t move the car. The expatriates jumped out and ran, and he was the one left behind.
So, what happened to him?
They said they didn’t know. I said to myself, ‘How can three people go to the same place and only one person is abducted?’
I called my pastor that night. It was already late, and I didn’t know what else to do or who to call. I wasn’t even sure if I should call his mother to tell her what was happening.
The next day, I went to their house. His mum told me to call the number again, which I did. The person who answered said, ‘I’ll call you back in 20 minutes.’
He eventually called back after 40 minutes. When he did, he said, ‘If you want to speak with him, bring N1m.’ I agreed, and then he cut the line.
At that time, it wasn’t as if they used another phone to call me; it was his staff line we were calling, and someone kept picking it up. When I mentioned this, the office people told me they had also called that same number.
I called again and told them what was said, but they advised me to stop calling and let the office handle it. I agreed. The office later told me they had spoken with the kidnappers, who demanded N1m.
They paid the N1m, and someone was allowed to speak with him, but they weren’t sure if it was him. The voice they heard was weak; they couldn’t confirm his identity.
What happened thereafter?
After that, the kidnappers demanded a ransom. The office paid N2m for his release and another N1m for the vehicle. They said they would use the vehicle to bring him back. It was just back and forth like that, and I said okay.
Then they requested more money — another N2m. But before paying, the office asked for proof of life. That became another back-and-forth: pay two million, show proof of life… pay two million, show proof of life — until eventually, his line stopped going through.
After that, they didn’t call any other number. They didn’t contact any member of the family. So, I went to their Lagos head office. There, they claimed they weren’t even aware of the case and were only just hearing of it.
When did you go there?
I went there the following week. Yes, the week after the incident, in which this thing happened on a Tuesday. All that time, we were going back and forth about money and bringing him, but nothing was happening.
When I got there, we were pushed from one office to another until we finally reached the head office. Even then, everyone there said they had not heard anything about it. By then, nearly two weeks had passed.
That was bad, that was strange. Before I left for Lagos, I had spoken on the phone with someone from the HR department. He said he hadn’t heard anything about the incident, but that he would call me back — or I should call him back.
When I called again, he stopped picking up. He never answered my calls after that. So, I had no choice but to travel to Lagos. When I got there, they kept pushing me from one office to another until we eventually reached the HR office.
I asked if we could meet with the head of the department. They said he was not available. I told them what had happened. They claimed they had not heard about it at all. That was shocking.
Then they said something that left me speechless: that the matter we were ‘making noise’ about was a security issue, and that we should stop shouting about it.
They told us, ‘The more we shout about it, the more we endanger the life of the person involved.’ We said, ‘Okay, so what do we do?’ They advised us to speak with the Chief Security Officer. We called him, and he said, ‘Madam, there’s no casualty. We are seriously working on it. We will get to the root of the matter.’
Punch
Even now, the telecoms company keeps saying they are still ‘seriously working on it.’ But I don’t know what exactly they are working on — Today (August 13, 2025) is three months and six days already.
