The police in Lagos are battling to find a 13-year-old girl, Chikwuo
Ezennia, who reportedly fled her house with a yet-to-be-identified man,
suspected to be her lover.
Punch Metro learnt that Ezennia, who
is in Basic 4, had come to Lagos from Nneni village in Anambra State to
spend her holiday with her relatives.
Punch gathered that the girl, however, fled her relatives’
apartment on Ishola Bello Close, Iyalla Street, Alausa, Lagos, in the
afternoon of Thursday, November 20, when the family had gone out.
It was gathered that when the girl’s aunt, Mrs. Ambrose Okolo, and her
husband returned from work at about 6pm, Ezennia was nowhere to be
found.
Punch correspondent also gathered that during the initial search
for her, some neighbors told the Okolos that they saw the teenager
walking away with a man in the afternoon.
Ezennia was said to
have told the neighbors that her aunt maltreated her and had traveled
away for a week. Hence, she would be staying with a friend during that
period.
Punch Metro learnt that the family reported the matter
at the Alausa Police Division the following day. It was gathered that
the police invited some persons, who allegedly saw the girl, for
interrogation.
It was also gathered that Ezennia, who
speaks only Igbo fluently, was supposed to return to her village by the
end of December. It was further learnt that Ezennia had a record of
fleeing home to stay with men when she was in the village in Anambra.
When PUNCH Metro visited the apartment on Tuesday, Okolo, who is a
self-employed chartered accountant, said the family was anxious to know
the supposed lover, who had been shielding the girl, adding that all
efforts to locate her had proved unsuccessful.
She said,
“Ezennia is just 13, but she looks big enough to be called a man’s wife.
If you see her, you will think she is a lady. She just came from the
village to spend some time with us and she is supposed to go back this
December. But since that Thursday, we have yet to find her.
“The
reason I suspect she may be with a lover is because of some recent
developments. Just a week before that incident, I traveled to Benue for a
programme, and she was alone with my children in the house. There is a
phone that my children use which contains only my number and my
husband’s.
But when she fled home and we started the search, I
picked up the phone and to my surprise, I saw a string of strange
numbers.The children said Ezennia used the phone when I traveled. I
wondered who she might have been calling since she is new in Lagos.”
Punch Metro learnt that calls and text messages sent to the numbers by
the family since the day of the incident had not been replied to.
Efforts by our correspondent to obtain Ezennia’s photograph were
unsuccessful as the teenager had yet to take any since she arrived in
Lagos.
