Akindoyo Gideon, a 300-level Computer Engineering student of Al-Hikmah University, Igbaja, in Kwara State, has been reportedly missing in the Irele local government area of Ondo State.
Gideon was seen last week Monday, June 11, 2024, between Igbobini and Ode Irele communities in Ese Odo local government and Irele local government areas of the state before he went missing.
According to a source, the missing person was seen when he headed to his parent’s farm at Lumeko village located between Igbobini and Ode Irele communities.
The source further explained that Gideon travelled home to meet his parents and later went to the farm with his motorcycle to harvest cassava but was yet to return home since then.
The source informed that the development raised suspicion that he might have been kidnapped on the farm because his motorcycle was seen on the farm while his whereabouts remained unknown.
Narrating how the boy went missing, his mother, Mrs Janet Akindoyo, said the boy arrived in Irele on Sunday, June 10, and went to the farm to harvest the following day but he had not returned up to the time of filling this report.
“He has not returned, search party saw his motorcycle where he parked it but we haven’t seen him. I’m appealing to the security and the people to help find him,” she appealed.
Meanwhile, the Senate secretariat of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has urged security agencies to find the missing student.
In the statement signed by its leader, Henry Okunomo, NANS linked the missing of the 30-year-old Gideon to the lingering communal crisis between Irele and Igbobini communities, calling on the leaders of the two communities to find the missing student dead or alive.
The statement read, “According to information gathered from the National President of Irele Local Government Students and a community leader Dr Adekugbe Erik, the student had travelled home to gather foodstuffs from his community, only to be abducted while working on his father’s farm.
“The community leader reported that the student’s disappearance coincided with an attack by the Igbobini community, resulting in destroyed homes and properties.
“We categorically demand that the leadership of both Irele and Igbobini communities produce the student, either dead or alive, within the next 72 hours. failure to do so will compel us to relocate the NANS secretariat to the affected communities, where we will remain until the student’s safe return is secured.”
However, confirming the incident when contacted, Ondo State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, said the men of the command were in the forest in search of the missing student.
According to Odunlami, “Our men are working in the forest in search of the person and investigation into the matter had begun.”