New Telegraph

When a nation betrayed an orphaned girl

The late Iniobong Umoren’s sister got the urgent call from her late sister’s friend on time – Ini appeared to be in trouble and desperately needed help. The last time her phone rang, Iniobong’s friend explained, she was crying and her voice trailed off. It appeared to her that someone snatched the phone out of Iniobong’s hands. Iniobong had heeded an invitation through an unknown phone number to pick up a job and had kept her friend in the know. The friend advised her to send the telephone number and job location to her. She did that.

After a while came the distress call. Her sister ran down to the police station. As you would expect any person with a good civic education to do at such times. But the policeman, after listening to her, informed her with all the airs of a wise man that the police only begin a search for a missing person after 24 hours. He advised her to come back the next day.

See what a country we live in? A young woman’s life was on the line, there was a window of opportunity to save her life and all that was needed was prompt police action. If this had happened in any country outside Nigeria, police squad cars would have swooped on the location and who knows if her life would have been spared. Not here.

You have to wait for twenty four hours – no matter the state of urgency. But consider another scenario. If that policeman’s sister were to have run down to the police station and informed him that his daughter just put a distress call through to them from an identified location and they needed the police to take action, what do you think would have happened? Do you think he would have asked his sister to go back and he would take action after twenty-four hours if she does not show up? If you know the answer, then you may be close to solving the puzzle of why “the police is your friend” sounds as true as “the cat is the mouse’s best friend.” The poor young woman left in tears.

Throughout the night, Iniobong’s friend drove the issue online and the online community mounted a campaign to locate the missing girl and expose her abductor. The next morning Iniobong’s sister was back at the police station for police action. The police asked her to rent a van for the operation and also provide them with petrol.

She did not have the money and she had to fall back on Iniobong’s friend to transfer money to her for this to be done. By the time the police got there, it was too late. Iniobong had been killed by her abductor (Uduak Frank Akpan, 20) and all they could salvage was her corpse. The late Iniobong lost her father when she was three years old. Her mother died shortly after.

The currents of life did not favour her, but with steady strokes and a focused mind she succeeded in obtaining a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. While waiting for her National Youth Service, which should have been in the next batch, she opted to work so as not to be a burden to anyone. She posted a job request on her twitter handle and that was how the hoodlum contacted her and lured her to her death. While we mourn her death, we should also be concerned about a system which waits for twentyfour hours in order to go and rescue a citizen in trouble.

In twenty-four hours you are not definitely interested in saving the persons life but in arresting the culprits. We should be concerned about a system designed in such a way that if you cannot bear the cost of having a distressed relative rescued from the fangs of death, the relative may not be rescued.

The inspiring words of the National Anthem says, “Arise O Compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey…” Sounds good. But the brutal truth is that until Nigeria begins to respond to the call of citizens in trouble (without waiting for twenty-four hours or for the citizen to hire a van and provide petrol), only those in Aso Rock (like the Garba Shehu’s of this world) will respond to Nigeria’s call.

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