The younger sister of 22-year old Oluwabamise Ayanwola who was declared missing ago after boarding the Lagos State Government owned BRT bus from Chevron Estate in Ajah on her way to Oshodi on February 26, has revealed WhatsApp communication linking her disappearance to the driver of the bus.
According to a report by The Nation, Elizabeth, lamented alleged abduction of her sister by the driver of the bus, identified as Nice Andrew Omininikoron, who had since been at large.
Narrating her sister’s last movement, Elizabeth said: “On Saturday evening (February 26), my sister closed at 7 pm. She normally had breaks on Sundays. She works at Ajah as a fashion designer and normally works from Monday to Saturday.
“So when she closed on Saturday (February 26), she wanted to go to my brother’s house because his wife was in labour. My brother stays at Ikotun (a Lagos suburb).
“She boarded a bus from Chevron Bus Stop. When she entered the BRT bus, it was only her, and there was no light inside the bus.
“She had felt safe inside the BRT bus since it is a popular state bus, but she wondered why it was only her that was in the bus and the driver didn’t pick any other passenger.
“She was even conversing with a colleague of hers because she felt unsafe. She was sending voice notes to her friend. Her friend advised her to drop since the driver didn’t pick up any other passenger.
“Before entering, she informed her friend that the driver was passing some remarks at her but she didn’t answer. So later on, the driver later picked up three people on the road: two men and a lady. Then she now felt calm.
“Before the driver picked the three other persons who had disguised as passengers, she made several videos of the bus and the driver and sent it to her friend. The video captured the bus number. It helped us in tracking the bus.
“Her phone was not low. It is a new phone she just bought three weeks ago. Her friend chatted with her several times, but she didn’t reply. She tried calling her via normal call a few minutes to 8 pm, but she didn’t pick up.
“Around 7:32 pm, she posted ‘God, it is your protection I need’ on her Whatsapp status. I saw the status but I didn’t see it on time because I was not online.
“After repeated calls, her friend said she heard some voices underneath trying to struggle to get the phone from her.”
Asked how the family learnt about Bamise’s plight, Elizabeth said: “It was her friend who was chatting with her that alerted us.
“She called one of my brothers to ask for her whereabouts, but he said he had not seen her. I was even in church when they told me that they could not reach her.
“When we tracked it independently of the police, we tracked it down to Oshodi terminal station. When we got there, they didn’t answer us properly. We were told the driver was supposed to resume by 2 pm, but we didn’t know he was around and we were there till 3/4pm.
“We later learnt the following day that the driver was around but took to his heels when he learnt that there was trouble. We went to Maroko and Ajah police stations to lodge complaints and we’ve been shuffling through these stations.
“We had to look for his guarantors. After locating one of his guarantors, we were told by the elder brother of the guarantor that his junior brother was not aware he was being used as a guarantor.
According to Elizabeth, the family made an attempt to track the driver’s location and it showed through his phone that he was two streets away from where her missing sister is.
The last location of the phone tracked is in Ogun State, but the driver is currently on the run.
A staff at the terminal, who did not want to be named, said the Oshodi bus terminal is where BRT buses usually load to various destinations and that the family had been directed to Lagos Bus Services Limited where the case would be handled.
It was also gathered that Bamise’s family had held a meeting with the Lagos Bus Service Ltd. (LBSL), operators of BRT, on Wednesday, March 2, and the latter assured that efforts were being made to track down the driver.
National Daily Newspaper
