In this interview, a Nigerian pastor, Emmanuel Akinola, whose wife went missing after a bus accident, shares the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of his wife in an interview with VICTORIA EDEME.
How did you get the news of the accident?
My name is Emmanuel Oluwafemi Akinola. I am 48 years old. My wife’s name is Beatrice Omoyeni Akinola. She is 46. I live in Badagry and I’m a pastor in The Apostolic Church, Badagry Headquarters. We are from Oyo State. I’m from Ibadan North Local Government Area, while my wife is from Ibadan East. Olaitan is my wife’s maiden name and we have four children. It was on Thursday, December 28, 2023, I knew she was to return home from a journey on that day. In the morning, I called her to find out if she was still coming or if she had changed her mind. After calling her on the phone, I had a WhatsApp call with her because the children insisted they wanted to have a video call with her. During the call, she said she was going to dress up for the journey. That was some minutes past 11. I went on with my normal daily activity. She was coming from Ibadan to Badagry.
You mentioned that you lived in Badagry. Why did your wife travel to Ibadan?
My wife’s father was sick and was staying at her sister’s place in Ibadan, so she went to visit him and take care of him for a week. She left Badagry with our 10-year-old son on the 20th and was to return on that day. I went on with my work at the area headquarters of The Apostolic Church in Badagry. I was expecting her call, which was her normal routine. Whenever she boards a vehicle, she will call and I’ll know she’s already on the journey. On that day, she didn’t call. I was also carried away with work that I didn’t know time was far spent. When I checked the time, it was 3 pm. I was surprised my wife hadn’t called and thought maybe she had suspended her journey. So, I tried calling her but her number wasn’t going through; it was switched off. On that day, there was an issue with MTN lines. I couldn’t even load airtime. So I thought I couldn’t reach her because it was network problems. So when it was 5 pm and I was yet to hear from them, I called the sister to confirm if she was still in Ibadan or not. When I called my sister-in-law, she said she was at work but she knew my wife would have left her residence. My sister-in-law is a matron at University College Hospital, Ibadan. She then said she’d send her husband’s number to me. I already have her husband’s number so I called him and he confirmed to me that my wife left around 12. When I heard that, I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want to stir up their hearts. I only said that my wife hadn’t arrived and I had been unable to reach her. I then calmed them down, adding that sometimes, traffic on Badagry Road may be so terrible that one may have to stay there for a long time. I told them they should be at peace and that all was well. By past 9, I saw my elder brother who works in the same institution where my wife was working. When I saw him, I was scared. I was scared because since I entered into ministry in 2018, he had never visited me. So for him to come and see me around that time, I knew something must have happened. I asked him if his visit was connected to my wife who travelled and hadn’t returned. He replied in the affirmative but said he wanted to see the area superintendent of the church. I told him that he didn’t have to see the area superintendent if the matter was concerning my wife. I told him to go ahead and tell me what happened because I was the husband. That was when he told me that a doctor at Lad Hospital Ibadan called my younger brother who works at Beach Town, Badagry. I later learned that road safety officials took uninjured survivors to Lad Hospital after an accident occurred close to Ogere Remo, inward Ogun State. So a doctor at the hospital reached out to my younger brother whom he knew very well after interviewing my 10-year-old son, who was part of the uninjured survivors. My son told the doctor that his mother, who was with him on the journey, worked at French Language Village. So the doctor asked my son if he knew any Yemi Akinola and my son told him that he wasn’t sure but had an uncle who was named Yemi. The doctor then snapped my son and sent the photo to Yemi if he knew the boy. My brother then replied that the boy was his nephew. That was when the doctor then told my brother about the accident, stating that the boy had been rescued but there was no sight of his mother. The doctor said if he had anybody in Ibadan, the person should come and take my son. Checks have been done and it was revealed that my son was perfectly okay, without injuries or internal bleeding. It was then they called one of our brothers in Ibadan to go and take my son. Eventually, he took my son home after the doctor called my brother to confirm the name of the person that was being sent to take my son. So when he was convinced that it was a relative, the boy was released to my brother. My elder brother who came to break the news to me in Badagry told me that our younger brother called him because he didn’t want to call me directly. So my wife’s relatives were already calling me at that time, and since I didn’t have any update to give them concerning their sister, I switched off my phone. My in-laws didn’t know anything at all till we all got to Ibadan the next morning.
Have you reported the incident to local law enforcement, and if so, what has been their response or progress in the investigation?
Early in the morning on Friday, December 30, we set out to Ibadan and got there around 9 am. The first persons we met were the road safety operatives. When we got there, the operatives were sympathising with us, stating that my wife may be among those who got burnt in the accident. We were informed that the 18-seater bus that my wife and son boarded somersaulted and went up in flames. After hearing from the road safety officials, we were filled with sorrow because of their assumption. So the road safety officials told us that we had to go to the police to get a report. We went to the Toll Gate Police Command which was not far from the road safety office in Ibadan. When we got there, the police directed us to the High Court to swear an affidavit that the person we were looking for was my wife and she was truly on a journey on that day the incident happened. So we went to the High Court in Ring Road, Ibadan, to swear the affidavit. After we swore the affidavit, my wife’s sister joined us at the court after she had called my father in Badagry because she could not reach me, as my phone was switched off then. After receiving the call from my sister-in-law, my father had called my elder brother then to tell him that my wife’s sister called as she was unable to reach me. We didn’t want to break the news to my father then, because he is an elderly man of 83. After my father received the call from my sister-in-law, he went to my house to ask for me, but they told him I went to Lagos; but as an elderly man, he already knew that something was up. When I knew he had called my elder brother, I then decided to switch on my phone and call my sister-in-law to come and meet us at the High Court, Ring Road, Ibadan. It was when she came that I broke the news to her.
When did you meet your son for the first time after the accident?
I saw my son on Friday evening, when we were through with the day activities. We went to my brother’s house, where my son was, to spend the night. There, my son confirmed to me that the bus was fully loaded. He also said that two men were the last passengers that boarded the bus. Those two men were not even among the identified persons in the accident, according to the figures that the road safety and police were giving. After all was said and done, we left Ibadan for Badagry on Saturday, December 30.
What kind of bus did your wife board and has the bus management been reached concerning the accident?
It was an inter-state bus and we visited the park at Iwo Road garage.
Did you confirm if there was a manifest for the trip?
Yes, there was a manifest. We asked our brother in Ibadan to go and request the manifest from the park. At the park, they said the manifest was inside the vehicle. To me, that information was very false. A manifest should have a duplicate. One should be dropped at the park and the other would be in the bus. But they refused to release the manifest. They insisted that it was in the vehicle. So we may still have an issue with that. I have told the police that I don’t want to have any case with anybody because what has happened has happened, whether good or bad. But with what the park was trying to do, it appeared they were trying to cover up something. We were asking for the manifest so that we could reach out to the next of kin of other passengers to confirm the whereabouts of their people and if they were back at home. We wanted to know if we were the only ones looking for our person. But they refuse to give us the manifest.
Did you report this to the police?
We are going to take that up later because I’ve told my elder brother who knows some policemen to push the case forward. Maybe when they see a police officer, they will release the manifest.
What gave you the conviction that your wife is still alive?
Why I was insisting that my wife was not dead was because of my son’s testimony. My son said he was sleeping when the accident happened. My son’s head was on his mother’s lap when he was sleeping. It was in that accident that he woke up. When he came out, he was shouting ‘my mother’, ‘my mother’. So I asked him if he saw his mother when he came out from the vehicle, he said ‘no’, adding that the vehicle was filled with smoke when he woke up. I am also optimistic because I am a pastor and I know that something like that cannot happen to me and my spiritual instinct will not speak to me. So I am convinced that my wife is not dead. Also, the first thing my father told me when we returned to Badagry was that I shouldn’t allow anybody to tell me that my wife was dead. My father is an overseer in the church so when he said that, I agreed with him. My instinct had not told me that my wife was dead, and that burnt body I saw was not my wife. When he told me that, it boosted my courage and I said if that was the case, we had to gather some prayer warriors to pray. From the prayers, revelations have been coming, indicating that some evil people only made use of the event to pack some people for evil doings. So our prayer point is that God will throw confusion to their camp and bring my own wife back alive. It was when the revelation came that I summoned the courage to announce the incident on Facebook, cause I will not keep quiet and allow evil people to do her harm. I was the one that first announced it on Facebook.
What other testimony did your son give that you think will help with the search for your wife?
My son told us that there was one reverend sister who was injured in the accident and she was one of those admitted to UCH. We could not speak to her when we went to Ibadan that day. He also told me about the two men who were the last persons to board the vehicle. I’m suspicious that they may have a hand in the issue because the accident didn’t look funny to me as it was said that the front tyre was punctured. We also saw that the wheel was not removed when we visited the accident scene. We combed all the bush around the place to search for her. We didn’t see anything but some burnt items. But we also don’t know the whereabouts of the men. That’s why I’m having an issue with those at the garage as they don’t want to release the manifest. God has spoken to us about evil people. So who are those evil people? That must have been connected to someone in that vehicle who went scot-free and no one knew their whereabouts.
Your wife has been missing for two weeks. How have you been faring since then?
It has not been easy. I’m only using the faith and courage of God because if anything happens in the church, we are the ones consoling them. So when it happens to us, are we to be consoled? I’ve only been consoling myself. Sometimes, before I sleep, I weep and rain prayers on whoever is holding my wife hostage. I cry myself to sleep. I’ve not even been having restful sleep. I’ve been having sleepless nights and I hold vigil with my children to fight the spiritual battle together.
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Source: The PUNCH