A 46-year-old father of five, Mr. Michael Igbokwe, has revealed how his 17-year-old daughter, Queency Igbokwe, was allegedly abducted and forced into prostitution by a woman he collected a loan of N1 million from to boost his business.
Recollecting his daughter’s disappearance since last year, Michael said that one of his salesgirls told Queency that there was a fantastic job, with an attractive salary, which she could be linked her to. Queency had immediately accepted to do the job, without knowing what the job entailed.
Michael said: “I didn’t know that it was the lady, Maureen Onuniwu, who I collected a loan from that contracted my salesgirl to lure my daughter with a promise of a good job, and then forced her into prostitution.
“Since 2017, I have been making frantic efforts to locate my daughter. One day, she left my office at Iyana-Oba, saying she was heading home to pick something; that was the last time I saw her.”
Michael explained that on August 28, 2017, he was at home, preparing to go to his office, when he overheard Queency, speaking with Rachael Obaro, one of his salesgirls.
He said that the conversation he heard was quite disturbing, so he called Queency and threatened to beat her if she didn’t open up and tell him what she was discussing with Obaro.
He added: “She said that Rachael told her she had secured a job for her. When Rachel started getting close to my daughter, I noticed and warned her to leave my daughter alone. I also threatened to sack her if she didn’t delete my daughter’s phone number from her phone. Rachel said that I couldn’t force her to delete Queency number from her contact. One fateful day, Rachael didn’t come to office, when I called her phone to know why; she claimed that hot water poured on her leg. The following day, Rachael called Queency and told her that she had secured the job for her. When my daughter told me about the job, I got angry.
“I have warned her against accepting the job. I also told her to focus on the computer training school she was attending, coupled with the UTME she was about to sit for. My plan for her was to study Law. On August 30, I left home very early to see someone. While there, I called to ask Queency if she was already in the office. She was the person that used to open the office for other workers.
“She told me she was going to check the company, where Rachael told her she had secured a job for her. My wife and I waited throughout that day without Queency returning home. When it was 8pm., I called her to know if she was close to the house; she picked and replied that she was still at the company. I asked her how much the company was planning to pay her, she said N15,000. I shouted at her to return home, that I would pay the same amount, but she hung up on me.”
When Michael couldn’t handle the situation anymore, he went to his pastor to prevail on his daughter to return home.
When the pastor eventually spoke with Queency, she said she didn’t have money to return home.
“Immediately, I went to the bank and transferred N2,000 into her account. When I asked her where she was, she told me she was somewhere in Ajegunle area, on her way home,” said Michael.
Exactly two weeks after Michael sent N2,000 to Queency, he went to his bank to confirm the location that the girl withdrew the money from. He discovered the money was withdrawn at International Trade Fair axis.
Michael said: “I also went to police control room to declare her missing. Two days after that, one Inspector Sam called me from Iba Police Station, to say that a woman came to report me at their station that I owed her money. It was Maureen. I later got to know that Maureen conspired with Rachael to abduct Queency. I told the police why I had not paid the loan. It was because Maureen sued me and the matter is still pending.
“I know Maureen is the person holding my daughter captive. She kidnapped my daughter and forced her into prostitution.”
Michael said that in May 2016, he collected N1 million loan from Onuniwu, promising to pay back on or before June 15, 2016.
He said that he couldn’t meet up with the payment because business was poor. He begged for three months’ extension, which Onuniwu allegedly didn’t accept.
She then took him to police station, where he was detained for five days.
“When I confronted Maureen, she said that since I refused to refund her the N1 million loan, that my daughter should be able to refund the money through prostitution,” Michael alleged.
Reacting to all the allegations levelled against her, Onuniwu laughed, stressing that Michael had been feeding the media and other people pack of lies.
The woman, who introduced herself as a money lender, said that she only assisted Michael, whose business was about to collapse, with N1 million, only for him to refuse to pay back.
She said: “On March 16, 2016, Michael came to me to collect the loan. Before then, I didn’t know him. It was through a woman, who came to collect loan from me, whom he stood surety for that I got to know him. A week after the woman collected the loan, Michael came to me that his business was dying; he said that I should assist him with a loan. When he came, I told him I don’t give loans to people I don’t know. He begged and prevailed on me to help him. Out of pity, I asked him to take me to his shop. We went there and after inspecting it, I called my lawyer and his own lawyer. We had an agreement and the money was released to him.
“Since he had collected the money, he had been coming up with different tricks not to repay. I’m surprised about this issue of his daughter. I don’t know his daughter. I cannot use her for prostitution in place of my money because I have my own daughter. He even reported me to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) on this same issue. When I got there, after explaining myself, I was exonerated. He left there and went to Anti-Kidnapping Unit to report me again, I was also exonerated again.
“To get my money, I went to his village in Imo State to report him to their monarch. He was summoned to the village, but he refused to honour the invitation. On Tuesday last week policemen from Iba Police Station came to arrest me; but thank God I was released after explaining myself to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO). Each time police go to arrest him, he would run away.
“Nobody would see him for a month, and then, he would resurface. After collecting money from me, he also went to Chibueze Nwaigwe and collected N250,000 from him. Rather than pay the man, he went to police station and painted the guy black. It was when I went to SCIID that I met Chibueze there. He came to lodge similar complaint against Michael.”
.new telegraph