BENIN – Concerned citizens living at Idokpa community in Uhunmwonde local government Edo State, have raised an alarm over the disappearance for the fifth year running, of one of their youths, Stephen Omorodion.

They say that he has not been seen since 27 October 2016 and are afraid that he may have been kidnapped or killed, so they are forced to cry to the public as the matter is worrisome.

A female member of the community who spoke under condition of anonymity said that the said Stephen Omorodion, is an adopted son of the Late Mrs Caro Omorodion.

She said, “Sister Caro took Stephen as her own child though she had other children but loved Stephen and pampered him and this made her biological children very envious of him.

“Before she died, She even gave the boy some of her property. It was because the children wanted to collect this property that they threatened him to kill him and were always beating him up. Stephen once alleged that they are members of cult groups and so started hiding from them because he was afraid for his life”.

However, sources in the community say that the said Stephen Omorodion, before his sudden disappearance was a victim of regular violent attacks by these boys with some of their friends. They said he often cale back home with bloody wounds from beatings he received on the street by the Omorodion siblings, Osato and Ugiagbe who are suspected members of the dreaded cult groups, Aye and Eiye.

On one occasion, it was gathered that after members of the group brutally beat him up with iron rods and fired gun shots into the air, to scare residents of the community away, thinking he was now dead, they pushed him into the nearby bush. That is the last that was seen or heard of him.