Anxiety grows over fate of okada rider who exposed Ibadan horror

The whereabouts of a commercial motorcyclist popularly called Okada rider, who blew the lid on the evil at the Ibadan forest of horror is still unknown. His name is Kazeem and it was he who sent distress text messages to friends and colleagues while being held captive at the forest. Unfortunately, he was not among the victims rescued by people and minions of law at the forest.

And seven days after the Saturday’s discovery of the evil forest, curious residents and colleagues of Kazeem said they would not give up until their missing colleague is rescued from the jaws of kidnappers. As at Tuesday, his colleagues claimed they still received test messages from him asking them to rescue him from the kidnappers’ den. Already, a search party has been launched for the Okada rider by his colleagues and relatives, who many believe could still be alive, in the forest with nine others.

A source, who asked not to be named, told reporters:
“Kazeem is a commercial motorcyclist and was lured by one of the kidnappers to the site. Unknown to his captors, he had hidden a cell phone which he used to send distress text messages to people. He used his phone to contact some of his colleagues and gave them the description to the site of horror. That was how we came to this forest to search for him. We have searched everywhere but could not find him. We have also called his phone severally after but we could no longer reach him. He might have been killed in the forest.’’

One of the Okada operators, who is also a member of the search team, Mr. Babayemi Farinu, described his kidnapped colleague as gentle and focused. Another Okada operator, Dapo Abbey, who spoke with The Nation yesterday, said:

“We all came here to show solidarity and to fight agents of darkness. It is not because we know him, he is not under our unit, but he is our colleague because he is an Okada operator. His name is Kazeem and he is from Olomi area. From what we gathered from people who know him, he is such a gentle and diligent person. He was said to have brought two passengers here last Saturday but ended up being kidnapped. He has been sending distress calls since Saturday, and this afternoon, we learned that he sent text messages to people. What that means is that he is still being held somewhere in this forest with others. That is why we appealed to policemen to help us to search for him.”