SHE told her story with almost meaningless simplicity. What she told of her experience at a thanksgiving service at their branch of Christ Life Church, Adabol Area in Bashorun, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital could be taken with a pinch of salt because she just ran through it, and went back to her seat. It was obvious she did not know the weight of what she just talked about, nor did she know the enormity of the miracle she had turned out to be.
Oluwadamilola Isaac, more commonly called 'Damilola or 'Dammy' went to school as usual at C&S New Eden Primary School, Oju Irin, Bodija, Ibadan on the fateful day and her parents, as usual, expected her back at home around 2 to 2:30 in the afternoon. But at 3 O' clock, her mother called to notify her father of the unusual: “Dammy has not returned from school.” Her father, Isaac Ajanaku said his immediate reaction was “why?” But he sensed danger and swung into action.
Isaac said he called all the people he could possibly call, including all the clerics he knew to report the matter and had even gone to a police station to report the development. Before these, he had gone to the school where he made enquiries about the day's activities and the possibility that Dammy might have decided to walk home with her friends.
According to Ajanaku, “the Headmistress took me to some of her classmates with whom she left the school. But those ones explained that she boarded a taxi at the Oju-Irin taxi park where they load Ashi/Bashorun and that they all parted ways from there.”
He said at the garage, there was little he could do because the picture the relevant authorities there painted was that his daughter might have gone playing and would soon return home.
At the Railway Police Station in Bodija, Ajanaku said he was advised to also go to the Central Police Station at Iyaganku so that a radio message would be relayed on the matter. “I did all those and even went as far as composing with the police officers at Iyaganku, the message to be aired in the broadcast media.
Then, it began to dawn on me that we were talking about my daughter.”
Meanwhile, he said they had formed prayer bands in church and at home to also “fight for her on the spiritual front”, while people inundated them with telephone calls to find out if Dammy had returned home. The search went all day with the enormous psychological burden on him, his wife and Dammy's siblings. “When we were left alone at home and we held hands to pray as a family, the absence of Dammy became pronounced and my other daughter, Peace, and my wife broke down in tears,” Ajanaku recalled.
At about eleven that night, Isaac said he got a call from a strange number. “The voice on the other side asked if I was Mr Isaac Ajanaku and said it was calling from New Gbagi Police Station. It then went off.” He said he called the number back and he confirmed that he was Isaac. “Then, the voice said 'your daughter is with us at the New Gbagi Police Station. She was brought to our station around 11p.m.'
I worked hard to conceal my joy from my wife so as to get further confirmation by, at least speaking with our daughter on the telephone. After I spoke with her, then I told my wife that Dammy had been found!”
Isaac said he subtly probed his daughter when they arrived at the police station the next morning. He reiterated that even though Dammy was not new to the Ashi/Bashorun route, he had to find out if she had hopped into just any vehicle she saw on the road against daily advice.
“I asked her why she did not board a painted taxi on the turn but a bus and she insisted that it was a taxi she boarded and that it was the usual painted taxi. I also asked why she refused to speak up when she arrived at our bus stop and she said she was slapped and beaten by two men in front of the taxi when she raised her voice as they drove past the bus stop,” he stated.
that the vehicle that drove them away was a painted taxi.
"How many of you," was the next question and she said “there were two girls already in the taxi when I joined them at the back seat,” adding “two men sat in the front seat and then, the driver.”
Damilola with her father
Narrating her experience further, Dammy said, “when we got to our bus stop, I told them to stop but the driver would not listen to me. I began to shout and one of the men in the front turned and slapped me so hard and shouted that I should shut up.
I then began to cry.” She said the man that slapped her brought out a miniature gourd and dabbed the forehead of the other girls who, she said, had remained somewhat dumb all along.
Dammy said: “They drove to the expressway through Ashi and were just driving. I did not know any of the places they drove through but they were far and it the road that leads towards the compound, they pushed me out of the car and drove off with the other children.
Dammy told the Nigerian Tribune was getting dark. I was just crying. Later they stopped somewhere on the road in the jungle.
I saw a house with white and red curtains ahead… the type we see in films. As they were making to join the road that leads towards the compound, they pushed me out of the car and drove off with the other children.
“I still had my school bag and lunchbox. I picked my things and started walking back. I didn't know where the road would lead and it was dark. I later arrived at another road and I saw a few houses. I also saw a small girl go into a compound with a gate so, I decided to go there.
Since the gate had been locked, I laid down at the foot of the wall of the house until a car's headlights fell on me.
“The man who was driving the car asked who I was and where I was coming from. He called members of his household and they all observed that my school uniform was strange to their community. I told them my name and what happened as I was coming from Bodija and going to Ashi.
The man now took me to the police station that night.”
Ajanaku said the good Samaritan who brought his daughter to the police station in New Gbagi found her at Olode area of Ibadan suburbs. "This is not just disturbing, it is frightening because I cannot just imagine what would have happened to the girl overnight all alone in the bush and how she would have found her way home."
Ajanaku said his worry was further heightened by how a taxi could take people away from a garage headed by some people and minutes later, both the passengers and the cab that took them away could not be accounted for? “What would be the fate of the other children and how much of this would be allowed to go on in vast and highly populated Ibadan? I think the Ashi/Bodija Taxi Unit of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) should answer some questions.
I hope the relevant security agencies are in on this."
At a thanksgiving service thereafter, the parents of 'Damilola described their ordeal but attributed the victory to “God who answers prayers.” Ajanaku said, “this is a victory for God and all His servants, especially for the Christ Life Church family worldwide.” It was, however double celebration as the family had earlier planned to dedicate their new twins to God that thanksgiving day.
