This is a story about a 300level English Language student of Nnamdi
Azikiwe University, Annabel Nzubechukwu Edeh, who has not been seen
since she left a night club with an unknown man many weeks ago in
Awka, Anambra state.
Annabel had gone to the night club with friends on September 17th and
as the group of girls prepared to leave, Annabel told her friends she
was in need of money so would go home with a guy she'd met at the club
and would return to school the following morning. It's been 6 weeks
and Annabel hasn't been seen.
Read Full Story by Oluchukwu Igwe, a 500l Chemical Engineering student
of the same school..
They were six girls, who went to Lounge 24 Gaga, a nightclub in Awka,
the Anambra State capital, on September 17. They are Calista, Uju,
Lovelyn, Ada, Chika and Annabel. All of them are friends and live
close to one another. When they returned to their hostels the
following morning, one of them - Annabel - could not be found.
Where is Annabel? This was the question classmates of Annabel
Nzubechukwu Edeh could not answer. The 300-Level English Language and
Literature student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka
has not been seen anywhere, 43 days after she went to the night club
with her friends.
Was she kidnapped? Is she dead? These are some of the questions being
asked by her distraught family members and friends. She is the only
girl in a family of three.
Annabel, 24, a native of Enugu State, was last seen on Wednesday,
September 17 evening, when she left her Paradise City Hostel in Iyiagu
Estate, Awka.
When she was leaving the club, Annabel reportedly left at midnight
with a guy she met at the club. That was the last time she was seen.
Annabel's friend and hostel mate, who simply gave her name as Ifeoma,
said after clubbing, the girls decided to find a place to sleep before
returning to their hostels. But Annabel, she said, told her friends
she wanted to go with Mmiri, a male acquaintance, she met at the club.
She was said to have told her friends that she was in need of money,
which could have informed her decision to go away with the guy.
When she did not return in the morning, it was learnt that Ada and
Chika called Annabel's phone but were disappointed to hear a male
voice claiming to have found the phone on the ground and asked the
'owner' to come for it.
Ada and Chika, it was gathered, retrieved the phone and contacted
Annabel's elder brother, Ifeanyi, who reported the matter at the State
Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Awka.
CAMPUSLIFE learnt that Ada and Chika were detained for alleged
complicity but were later released on bail.
When contacted on the phone, it was learnt that Mmiri claimed Annabel
left his house at 3:30am when she refused to enter his room.
But, after the conversation, Mmiri reportedly switched off his phone
and stopped going to a popular bar, where he drinks with his friends.
He is nowhere to be found.
A correspondent's efforts to speak with Annabel's friends she went to
the nightclub with were futile. All of them declined to comment on the
issue.
Annabel's roommate, Ukamaka, gave an account of what happened when she
spoke to CAMPUSLIFE on telephone.
She said: "Annabel told me she was going to the club that evening. Her
friends, Ada and Chika, waited in the compound till they were joined
by their other friends. I had a premonition of the incident in a dream
I had the previous night. I told her not to go to the club but she
refused. When the other three girls arrived, they all left together.
When she did not return in the morning, I called her line but nobody
picked. Later, a man claimed he found it."
Asked to describe the kind of person Annabel is, Ukamaka said that her
roommate is a good Christian and hardworking, saying Annabel is a good
tailor. "I believe Annabel is a victim of circumstance," Ukamaka said.
Ifeanyi said his family remained devastated by the incident. "We are
devastated at the moment. When I received the news, I travelled from
Onitsha to Awka to report the matter at the police station. The matter
is still being attended to at SCID and "B" Division.
Continue..
ReplyDeleteWhen CAMPUSLIFE visited Annabel’s mother in Onitsha, she fought back tears as neighbours consoled her. She said: “I warned my daughter to stay clear of bad friends, but she would not listen. When she was admitted in a hospital a few months ago, my spirit never accepted the kind of girls who visited her. Now, they have done their worst. I can’t see my daughter, now. Where is my only daughter? Annabel was seven months in my womb when my husband died.”
Mrs Edeh said she had consulted a prophet, who confirmed to her that her daughter is alive but held captive somewhere. She claimed that the prophet informed her that it was Annabel’s friends that facilitated her ‘abduction’ and threatened to sue them if her daughter did not return within days.
She added: “All I am asking is the safe return of my daughter. I have no other girl. If she was kidnapped, those holding her would have called us. I am confused. We are only praying to God and hoping that she returns home safe and alive. I am pleading with anyone, who knows her whereabouts, to give useful information that can help us to locate her.”
—The Nation