When Charity Anyanwu dropped off her
niece Munachiso Anyanwu, at the Lagos toll-gate to board a vehicle to the
commercial city of Onitsha, Anambra State, little did she know that it would be
the last time they would set eyes on her. Surprisingly, few hours after they
waved goodbye, all efforts to ascertain whether Muna, as she was popularly
called, reached her destination safely failed as nothing has been heard about
her since then.
It has been three months since they
parted as she reportedly went missing thereafter with her phones switched off.
Since then, members of her family have been making frantic efforts and
searching all corners of the country and beyond without any trace of her
whereabouts. Crime Guard learnt that 29-year-old Munachiso Goodluck Anyanwu, an
indigene of Aboh- Mbaise, Imo State, went missing on16 December 2014. She
studied Agricultural Economics at Abia State University.
HOW IT
HAPPENED
Recounting the incident that led to
the disappearance of his younger sister, Fabian Anyanwu Ezechukwu, told Crime
Guard that before her disappearance, Munachiso Anyanwu worked with Ogbefere
Branch of Diamond bank in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra state.
According to him, she disappeared on December, 16, 2014. ‘’Prior to that day,
Munachiso went to one Kennedy Uba’s shop and asked him to open an account with
her.
Kennedy told her he already had an
existing account with Diamond bank. He eventually gave her four hundred and
forty thousand naira to pay into her own account to upgrade her target. When
she came home she told me about the money Kennedy Uba gave her to update her
account.
TRIP TO
LAGOS
‘’The next day, she told me she had
taken casual leave from her office and that she would be travelling to Lagos
for a few days. After expecting her to return, I called her on December 8, she
said she was still in Lagos with our Aunty. That same day, a friend of mine,
Onyemachi paid in N180, 000 into her account.
My sister called me and asked if I
was expecting inflow of cash, I said yes that a friend of mine sent money to
her account to enable me purchase goods for him. I told her to withdraw the
money and send to me. She said okay she will do that but she did not travel
with her ATM card and where she was, she couldn’t do any transaction.
ANXIETY
OVER HER CONTINUED STAY IN LAGOS
‘’I became very disturbed on
December 15, so I called my aunty to find out what was holding her from coming
back from base because that was festive period and owners of the money needed
it for their business. I told my aunty that she should send back the money so
that I can return it to those who paid it into her account. She said she will
be coming back the next day. On December 16, I called Munachi but her phones
were switched off.
So, I called my aunty, she said she
dropped her at toll gate in Lagos where she boarded a bus but she didn’t
specifically know the bus she boarded. I became apprehensive and went to the
Federal Road Safety Corps office for them to track if there was any accident on
the road, they called the entire control unit from Lagos to Onitsha but said
there was no accident.
VISIT TO
HER OFFICE
‘’On the December 17th, I felt she
might have come back and went straight to the office. So, I went to their
office and one of their staff named Cynthia, directed me to their manager. I
went to her and identified myself as Munachi’s brother. She told me that
Munachi sent her a text message that she has resigned from the bank. I asked
her if that was the bank’s procedure for resignation or was was there any
fraudulent transaction or bank’s money that was missing? How can somebody
resign by sending a text message?
SUSPICION
OVER ACCOUNT
‘’However, because of the money
which Kennedy paid into her account, I immediately asked the bank manager to
freeze Munachi’s account so that there will be no more withdrawals. The bank
manager was becoming very difficult to deal with. She was asking me to get
police report and court order. I went straight to the police to get the report
and court order. It took me some days to get the documents, which was on
December 22. I went to the bank with a police officer and the documents. They
received and stamped them.
FRAUDULENT
WITHDRAWALS
Surprisingly, at that stage, the
Manager told me that somebody called Nwokpala Michael had been defrauding my
sister for months now. I told her that the name didn’t sound familiar and that
none of our family members bore that name. She then revealed that out of the
N440, 000 she collected from Mr Kennedy, my sister paid N430, 000 straight to
Nwokpala Michael’s account in the same Diamond bank. Ever since then, the bank
has not been able to assist the family in any way to locate my missing sister.
I then went to officially report the
matter at the Central Police Station, Onitsha and one Inspector Chukwu Martins,
was assigned as the Investigating Officer of the case. Later, they said we
should go to SSID department for call tracking where I paid for everything. The
SSID brought the flash, they couldn’t even open it and trace the communication.
I was very annoyed and frustrated. By then, I had spent so much time and
resources without any clue about my sister’s whereabouts.
TRANSFER
TO FHQ, ABUJA
‘’At this point, I requested that the
case be transferred to Force Headquarters, Abuja. I wrote a petition to the
Inspector-General of Police and the case was assigned to the Special Task Force
on Terrorism and Heinous Crimes at Guzape, Abuja. I went there and I have been
working with them but they have not done much up till date considering the
gravity of the case.
ENGAGEMETNT
OF A PRIVATE EYE
They told me to get a private
tracker named Williams, that he will be of help if I can afford his bills. They
later called Mr. Williams and after bargaining, I started remitting money to
him. I have paid him about a Hundred thousand naira yet no positive result. The
only thing he did was that on February 28, 2015, the police asked me to come to
Abuja that there was a soft target at Idah that has been speaking with Nwokpala
Michael and that if we apprehend the soft target, he might lead us to him.
I quickly prepared for the journey
and hired a Sienna bus which took us to Idah Polytechnic in Kogi state. I went
to there with three police officers and two trackers. We arrested a lady called
Abigail. We couldn’t come back that day so, I lodged them in a hotel and in the
morning, we went back to Abuja.
RESULT OF
TRIP TO IDAH
From the investigation carried out
later, we found out that the girl is also victim. She said she met Nwokpala
Michael through a friend, that he has a brother that is looking for a wife and
she barely knew Michael for three weeks and it was during that period that he
was calling her about 20 times daily. Later, she was granted bail and we re-scheduled
to meet on March 3, 2015. But, due to the fact that the trackers haven’t made
any headway, I stopped funding them. During that period, we also gathered from
Abigail that there is one Pastor Sam who is an accomplice with Michael. After
this, both the bank and police have not done anything further over the case.
FUTILE
EFFORTS
‘’We have gone to several groups
even in my church, some said she is alive and that the hand that is holding her
is very strong. It is almost like we are going round a cycle without making
much success. I want the police to do all they can to rescue my sister. All
what I want is my sister, it is very painful that the bank has not done much
for a long time. There was a time the bank Manager stopped picking my calls.
There was also a time, out of
frustration, I went to the bank and created a scene. She called police officers
to walk me out. Later, I went back there and apologized. I want the bank to
show concern because if it were to be that my sister defrauded the bank, as the
guarantor, I would have been arrested. Now that the reverse is the case, the
bank should also show concern,’’’he stated.
Source:Vanguard.
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