Just like the parents of the Chibok schoolgirls
abducted more than 100 days ago, the parents
of two toddlers have been in misery and
agony since June 30, 2014, when the children
failed to return from school.
The two little children, three-year-old Chisom
Nweke and her sibling, Somtochukwu who is
18 months, have not been seen for almost 35
days. Until they were declared missing, the
toddlers were pupils of Master’s Vessel
Academy, a private school in Obeozalla Nkanu
West Local Government Area, Enugu State.
Heart-rending tale about the missing kids
began when the proprietress of the school,
Mrs Dorothy Okafor, had to undertake an
assignment outside the school and handed
over to her deputy, 35-year-old Uchechukwu
Onah, to take charge of the school. No not
long after Okafor left, Onah allegedly
dismissed the pupils at noon instead of the
normal 4.00pm closing time of school.
Hell broke loose when the father of the
children came at the usual time to pick them
up and discovered to her horror that the
toddlers could not be found.
The Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Mr.
Mohammed Adamu told Sunday Sun that the
mother of the children then alerted the
proprietress of the school, who immediately
summoned all the teachers to gather, but
Onah herself could not be found. A report
was made to the State Criminal Investigation
Department and Anti-Human Trafficking Unit
of the Enugu State Police Command.
Explaining what followed, Adamu said: “We
arrested all the teachers of the school and
took them to the State Criminal Investigation
Department, Enugu, where we screened them.
They were all released later. When we called
Onah she told us that she was sick and we
started looking for her until July 3, 2014
when policemen in Agbani, Nkanu West LGA
arrested her.”
Telling her own side of the story, the
proprietress of the school, Okafor said: “I was
shocked when I heard that two pupils of the
same parents in my school were missing. I
was away from the school on assignment.
Before leaving I handed over the school to my
deputy. Immediately I left she dismissed the
pupils around 12.00pm instead of 4.00pm. So
when I heard that two pupils were missing, I
had to call all the teachers. When they came, I
didn’t see Mrs Onah. Policemen from the
State CID came and arrested all the teachers,
took them away screened everybody and later
released them. But I couldn’t find Onah and I
was worried. We started looking for her. She
called me and said she was sick. She said she
couldn’t come out and see me. Four days
after the children were missing she still
refused to come out. So policemen in Agbani,
Nkanu West went and arrested her.”
As would be expected, the father of the
missing children is distraught and agonizing
over the whereabouts of the toddlers. He
said: “These are the only two children I have.
We always go to the school to pick them
around 4.00pm. But on that day we came we
learnt that the school had closed around
12.00 pm. I was worried and we started
looking for my two children. The teachers that
were present in the school also assisted us
but we were unable to locate my children.”
While acknowledging that she was on duty on
the fateful day, the prime suspect in the case,
Onah, said she stayed back in the school after
all the pupils were dismissed to go home.
Her words: “When everybody left I didn’t go
home and I later heard that a certain parent
didn’t see his children. The daughter of the
school proprietress told me that one of the
primary pupils took them home. When they
called me I told the proprietress that I was
sick. I was at home when the police came and
arrested me.”
The big question that the Enugu State Police
Command is trying to provide an answer to is
simply this: where are the Chisom and
Somtochukwu? To help them give an answer
that will take away the pain of the parents and
restore their joy, Adamu has implored
members of the public to come forward with
any useful information that can lead to
recovery of the children. Meanwhile, the
Nweke family is pining away in deep agony.
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