Family in despair as businessman disappears on Ilesha-Akure highway

It was gathered that Leye was travelling to Akure, Ondo State, for a church outreach, when the incident happened.

It was learnt that the victim had a stopover at the Ikire area of Osun State.

However, the vehicle he boarded from Ikire to Akure developed a fault around Erin-Oke, where he last spoke to his family.

His brother, Tobi, told newsmen that the family tracked his phone, adding that all efforts to find him proved abortive.

He said, “He travelled from Ibafo, Ogun State, on Friday around 1pm, but he didn’t go through a straight bus. He took a bus to Ikire and later boarded another vehicle from there to Akure.

“On their way to Akure, their vehicle broke down at Erin-Oke; he called to inform people he wanted to stay within Akure and he later boarded another vehicle from Erin-Oke around 9pm. He called to inform them again.

“A few hours later, his in-laws called his phone; it rang out several times before it stopped ringing. We were alerted on Saturday that he didn’t get to Akure and that was how the whole search for him started.

“The church programme started two weeks ago; he wanted to attend the round-up of the programme slated for Saturday and Sunday. It was postponed till Monday, but he still decided to travel anyway to stay with his in-laws.

“We as a family have been trying to stay in the gap for his wife and his daughter till we find him. We just hope he returns because we don’t know what happened to him between Erin-Oke and Akure.”

The 35-year-old told newsmen that the family reported the incident at different police formations, including offices of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Amotekun Corps.

“We reported to most police stations around the area like the Ipetu Police Station, Ilesha Police Station, and his in-laws also reported at a police station in Akure. We reported to the police station in Ibafo, we also reported to the police at every checkpoint along the expressway; we reported to the FRSC officials, and Amotekun around there; they collected his information and pictures.

“We tracked his number to Erinoke, but we didn’t get the exact place. We contacted the bank to check if any transactions took place on his account because he was with his ATM card, but we were told that there was no transaction. We tracked his last call to his mother-in-law around 10pm,” he added.

The Osun State Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola, said she was not aware of the incident and promised to find out.

She had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.

The Corps Commander of the Osun State Amotekun Corps, Basir Adewinbi, could not be reached on his telephone line.