A flight dispatcher from Nasarawa State, Umar Suleiman, whose daughter, Khadija, went missing in the Kuje area of Abuja in 2016, tells TEMITOPE ADETUNJI how he has been coping with her absence seven years after
Can you recall how your daughter went missing?
My name is Umar Suleiman. I am 42 years old and I work in an airport. I am from Nasarawa State. The incident (daughter’s disappearance) happened on November 19, 2016. It was a Saturday.
What do you do at the airport?
I am a flight dispatcher.
What is your daughter’s name?
Her name is Khadija. She was two years and seven months old when the incident happened. She should be nine years and seven months old now.
Where did the incident happen?
Kuje, Abuja.
Where were you on the day of the incident?
Because of the nature of my job, I work on the weekends. I was at work on that day. I told you I work in the airport; I was working on that Saturday and coincidentally, there was an All Progressives Congress campaign for the governor of Ondo State in Akure. So, they (politicians) chartered (an aircraft from) my company and I happened to be among the group of people that was meant to follow the flight to Akure. So, that morning, I remembered I left my daughter while she was having tea. When I carried my bag and wanted to leave, she hugged me and bid me goodbye, but unknown to me that was the last time I hugged her.
How did you hear about her disappearance?
I was at the airport preparing some papers pending when the flight would be ready, so I think around 12.31 pm, I got a call from my neighbour that a woman had come and abducted my daughter and that he was at the police station writing a statement.
Were you told how your daughter was abducted?
I asked the neighbour about my wife and I was told that she was at the hospital when the incident happened.
What does your wife do for a living and where is she from?
She is still a student. She is from Kano State. I tried to get across to my wife and asked her what happened; she said she wasn’t feeling well, and around 10am, she went to drop my daughter off with the landlady and left for the hospital; the landlady also had children and my daughter was familiar with the children; they normally played together.
That day, I met a gathering of people in front of our house, and they were looking confused and worried. The landlady explained that her son wanted to eat a local snack called awara, so she gave the son money to go and get awara and my daughter said she wanted to follow him because she loved awara too. They took the backyard of the house and as they were passing, they saw a woman with a baby strapped to her back.
On their way back, they saw the woman again, and at that time, there were no people around. So, she called them and asked for their names and they told her. She teased them by calling them good children and she requested to buy biscuits and a beverage for them. She bought the biscuits and a drink and took them to a hidden place.
Did she take the two of them away?
She carried my daughter and told the boy to leave. His name is Usman, and as of that time, he must have been eight years old. The boy refused, insisting that he would like to go with his sister (my daughter), but the woman angrily pushed the boy to the ground. When he fell on the ground and was crying, the little boy ran back home to report and by the time people came to the place, the woman had run away with my daughter. She was nowhere to be found. People tried tracing her footsteps and they saw other people who claimed that they saw a woman with two children, but didn’t know that they were stolen children.
Did you report the incident to the police?
When I came back, I went to the police, and from the police station, someone contacted me and advised me to take the matter to the then-Special Anti-Robbery Squad. We took it to the Federal Capital Territory Police Command, and from there, we took it to SARS but what they were asking from me then was too much.
What did they ask you to do?
The police told me to provide a Sienna bus that four of them (policemen) would use to go and investigate the matter and that I would follow the vehicle for about four to six days. They also said I would pay for their hotel accommodation for the period. A day after that, I posted my contact on Facebook in case anyone saw my daughter anywhere so that they could contact me.
Did you get a response from members of the public?
The following day, someone contacted me and told me that if I wanted to see my daughter, I should go and meet one chief in Epe, Lagos, and that the chief’s son was with my daughter. Unknowingly, they were trying to implicate someone else. I explained to the police and later, they told me that they would follow it up.
Did you see the chief? Or were some people trying to take advantage of your situation?
In the end, we were able to apprehend the chief and his son, but we later found out that they knew nothing about it. Some people tried to scam me over the situation; a particular one from Ofa (Kwara State) even went as far as asking a little girl to pretend like she was my daughter on the phone. I knew my daughter’s voice and I knew it was a lie, but I played along. I secretly recorded every conversation I had with him. He even said she had catarrh and cough, and asked me to send money, claiming the drugs cost about N10,000.
Did you send the money to him?
I knew it was all lies, so I sent him about N5,000 just to trap him with the account details, and we got the owner of the account but it was a different person, who said someone sent him money to take the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board examination. Unfortunately for the boy, he didn’t take the exam because he was caught a day before the exam. So, those were the efforts taken and that has been the condition up till now.
What about your friends and family? In what ways have they supported you in the search for your daughter?
At the time the incident happened, my wife wasn’t feeling fine; she was pregnant and was already due for delivery. However, she went into shock because of the incident and couldn’t have the baby. The doctor told us that the baby’s heartbeat was dropping, so the solution was to opt for CS (caesarean section), which was done. She had the baby on November 20, 2016, which was a day after Khadija was abducted. We named the baby Abdulsalam. He is seven years old now, but he has never seen his sister. Although he has come across her pictures and keeps asking questions about her, we can’t give him a proper answer because it is hard for us to deal with the situation.
Do you have other children apart from Khadija and Abdulsalam?
After Abdulsalam, we had another boy, Salaudeen. The last child my wife gave birth to died on August 7 this year. She died 10 days after her christening. She had some complications for some hours and couldn’t make it. We have not had another daughter since then. Abdusalam is seven years old and Salaudeen is four years and some months old.
What has been keeping your hope alive and giving you optimism that your daughter will return?
I have heard of true life stories and seen cases of abduction. Someone shared an incident on Facebook where the neighbour travelled somewhere for a wedding and stayed for a few days. Along the line, in the community where she went, she saw a woman opening the gate of her house and spotted a child who had been missing and recognised the child and felt she needed to be smart about the situation. She came back home and informed the parents and they were able to meet the police; they explained the situation, got to the location where the woman’s house was located, and found out that it was real – that it was the same child they had been looking for. So, the parents recovered their child. I have heard of similar cases and I am still hanging on to that hope that one day, I will see my daughter again. I am only trusting God now.
How have you been coping with your daughter’s absence for seven years?
It is very traumatic; it is a traumatic situation, and it has not been easy taking it off my mind. I will be the happiest man on earth seeing my daughter again because she was close to me. I miss her so much. Since the incident happened, I have been receiving calls from friends outside the country. I have a family friend in the UK who always calls me. She thought it was a case of kidnapping for ransom, and she said she wouldn’t mind if that was the case, as she was willing to pay. There is also a friend in South Africa, who always calls to check on us. The last time he called, he requested to talk to my wife and comforted her. So, I won’t be the only happy person; my family and friends too will be happy to see my daughter again.
Did anyone advise you to seek the help of spiritualists in order to find your daughter?
Yes, we met different types (of spiritualists) but they are all liars and I am not the type who goes to them. You know women can sometimes be desperate; my wife said I should just do anything as long as our daughter would be found. I wasn’t so comfortable and my faith is different from that, so I rejected the suggestion.
What are the fond memories you have of your missing daughter?
I remember the last hug and her bidding me goodbye. There was a time she fell and I tried comforting her; those memories are still there. I will also like to add that the issue of abduction is a serious issue and the government is not doing anything about it. It is becoming rampant in Abuja and other northern parts of the country. Well, where the kidnapper passed with the children, there were checkpoints. It is either she passed through Gwagwalada Road or the other road leading to Area 1. I am sure the people at the checkpoints were not observant and I am sure the woman and my daughter did not share a resemblance, so they (security agents) were supposed to interrogate her and find out where she was coming from.
