Parents of the two teenagers who went missing while running errands in the Solomade, Ikorodu area of Lagos State, have said the police collected the sum of N4,500 from the family as payment meant for writing materials to report the case, and sending of signals to surrounding divisions so as to track the missing children.

PUNCH reports that the 17-year-old Channing Odugbo and Daniel, 19, on September 9 where sent by their father identified as Moses on separate errands and both have not been seen since then despite effort to trace their whereabouts. Police officers from the Igbogbo Police Division were said to have collected the said amount before commencing with the search for the missing children.

The report stated that Moses, who is a businessman shortly after the family’s devotion on the fateful day asked Daniel to withdraw some money from a nearby Automated Teller Machine, ATM.

Moses said, “Daniel was preparing for his UTME, so after the devotion, I called him to help me to withdraw N5,000 from the ATM. It was not his first time of going there to withdraw money.

“The walking distance between my house and the ATM is about 10minutes to and fro. But I observed that he didn’t return about 30 minutes later and I called his telephone. He said there was no money in the ATM and he had gone to another place.”

Moses, a Cross River State Indigene further disclosed that after a while, he also asked Channing to get some tins of milk from a shop just three blocks away, adding that he warned the 17-year-old, who was his younger brother’s son not to stay out long.

“But 20 minutes later, he didn’t return. I called Daniel and his phone rang for some time, but he didn’t pick it. About some minutes later, the phone was switched off.

“I went to the woman selling the milk to know if she saw Channing and she said the two boys were in her shop to buy some tins of milk. She said afterwards, she noticed they walked in the opposite direction, instead of coming to the house,” Moses noted.

He said he was surprised when they did not return home throughout that day as such had never happened before. This prompted the family to report the matter at the Sagamu Road Police Division, from where they were directed to the Igbogbo Police Division.

The Cross River State indigene further revealed that the police despite collecting money to send out signal to find the missing children and take his statement never did.

“At the station, I met a woman and she asked if I could write the statement myself and I said yes. She said I had to pay for the writing materials and I gave her N200. But she rejected the money and said it was too small.

“I then gave her N500 and she took down the statement. She asked me to go to the back of the building. A man there told me that they would need the children’s photos and money to send signal to all the surrounding divisions.

“He said I will pay N1, 000 for every signal. I had to return home to raise N4,000 which I paid for the signal,” Moses revealed.

Moses added that the policewoman at the station started ignoring his telephone calls, adding that he went round other police stations and his efforts were furtile.

“I later reported to the Ijede Police Division where I met a policeman who helped me to send the signal without collecting any money from me. Right there, I could hear as the message was being radioed. The Igbogbo police are a fraud; despite the money they collected, they didn’t do anything,” he said.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Joe Offor, however denied knowledge of the incident.

“I am not aware, please,” he said.