An aged mother, Mrs. Margaret Ejiwanse Okoh in Benin City has cried out over the sudden disappearance of her son, Emmanel Ejiwanse following the Lekki shootings by unidentified soldiers during the EndSARS protest.
It will be recalled that recently Nigerians across the country came out in large numbers in protest against police brutality, bad governance and other repressive tendencies of the present administration using the EndSARS.
Speaking in an interview with the Nigeria OBSERVER, Mrs. Margaret Ejiwanse Okoh said her son, Mr. Emmanuel Ejiwanse who until now was a Consultant Officer to an NGO that was into human right protection and advocacy in Lagos, called her that he was going to Lagos on an official engagement.
She further disclosed that while she had her reservations about the entire process, she however had to caution her son in the cause of undertaking job in Lagos State.
According to the mother, she appealed to her son to maintain a low profile in the cause of discharging his job as the entire country was already plunged into EndSARS crisis.
She said: When I realised that there was a nationwide protest on police exploitation and brutality, under the guise of the EndSARS protest which was assuming a dangerous dimension in Benin City, I decided to call my son on that fateful morning of October 20, 2020 to know if he was sate wherever he was.
“The last account of conversation I had with my son was when he said that they were in Lekki and that it was a peaceful protest that he was okay.
“However, my son assured me that the he would leave the protest ground soon to return hom only for me not hear again from him after the incidents of the Lekki shooting by unidentified soldiers of the Nigerian Army which left some persons dead and others missing”, she said.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Margaret Ejiwanse Okoh after conflicting reports emerged about the killings and shootings in Lekki, it dawned on her that her son could have fallen as a victim of the shooting as all efforts to reach him were unsuccessful after she called his phone number, which was switched off.
The NIGEERIAN OBSERVER learnt that his phone was still not reachable prompting Mrs. Margaret Ejiwanse Okoh and other family members to embark on a search for him at various hospitals around Lekki and environs in order to know if Mr. Emmanuel Ejiwanse was admitted or hospitalised, but to no avail.
She said: “what I saw with my eyes in most of the hospitals was so disturbing as there were cases of missing bodies and some were even said to have been taken away for treatment but later were not found in hospitals or medical centres.”
However, Mrs. Margaret Ejiwanse Okoh return to Benin without her son or any hope of locating his whereabouts as she constantly kept believing that her son would one day return home to warm embrace and wipe her tears.
Meanwhile, the hope that she would some day hear from her son dawn filled her with a strong feeling of assurance since he was not found in either at the hospital or in the mortuary.
A true account of Mrs. Maargaret Ejiwanse Okoh whose missing son, Mr. Emmanuel Ejiwanse was involved in the Lekki shooting during the recent EndSARS protest that was later hijacked by hoodlums nationwide prompting the use of extreme force by government to bring the situation under control.