In Lagos, a 2-yr-old girl, Esther Ojo, has reportedly gone missing while attending a church service with her family.
The little one disappeared after visiting a restroom a report by Punch News confirmed on Thursday, March 28, 2019. It happened at the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries’ in Pen Cinema, Agege.
Esther's carer allegedly took her to ease herself but got distracted when someone asked her to run an errand. By the time she returned, she was no longer in the toilet.
The victim's mother is identified as Bola in the report by Punch. The mum, also a teacher at the church where her daughter was taken, shared that so much efforts have been made to retrieve the 2-yr-old.
“We went to the church together and I am one of the children’s teachers. As of 12.31pm, we were still together and I was cautioning her not to step on the child sleeping on the bed until someone called me and I left where she was.
“We were almost through with the second service and I was very busy because I was rounding off the programme. The other teachers told me that Esther said she wanted to urinate and a child of a church worker took her to the toilet. The girl was the one that used to help me with Esther whenever I was busy and Esther was already used to her.
“The girl said she placed my daughter on the potty and left her there when somebody sent her on an errand to buy pure water. When she returned from the errand, I asked after my daughter and she said when she checked her in the toilet, she was not there. Ever since then, we have been looking for Esther.
“We first reported the case at the Pen Cinema Police Station, and we have also gone to the Area ‘G’ Command and the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Alagbon.
"They promised to radio other stations, but they later said they had not heard anything about her," Punch News reports from an interview with the mother.
The police also told Punch that it is making moves to find Esther Ojo. A DSP, Bala Elkana shared with it in the report. It learned from another source who is close to the family of the stolen girl and whose identity was not revealed, that the church could have taken an action to help find her but it didn't.
According to the source, the church appear concerned about avoiding a stain on its image.
“We were in the church on Monday and Tuesday. We told the church to bring it to the notice of the GO so that efforts could be intensified to find her, but the church is trying to extricate itself from the incident despite the fact that the girl went missing on the church premises. Up till now, the GO has not been informed.
“We have been to the police station and we have also been to the Oba’s palace. We hope to find her soon.”