Precisely at about 11pm, the patience of the family began to wane as the step-mother simply called Mama Solomon became apprehensive especially when Razaq had earlier told them in the morning that he was travelling to Lagos on a business trip and would be back same day.
“Could he have been involved in an accident? What could have happened to him? Why hasn’t he been back by now?”These were the words muttered by the pensioner father who had worked in various local governments as clerk before being retired in 2009.
As pathetic as it was with the couple who totally depended on the poor boy for daily survival was, two people who allegedly specialize in kidnapping and selling their victims to the ever-ready death merchants were not moved by the likely consequence of their trade especially in the case of Razaq.
The “human traders” on a bike accosted Razaq, a self-established and successful computer engineer who was trekking the distance to his father’s house in Mawuko after futile effort to get commercial motorcycle operators since they have closed for the day.
According to Razaq, who spoke with our correspondent during the week: “That day when I returned from Lagos, it was late that I was unable to get a motorbike at Iberekodo to Mawuko, I couldn’t call my parents too because I ran out of call units, I then walked to Ajitadun (a relatively distant area) to secure a recharge card but I couldn’t get either. But because I dreaded sleeping in my office at Isale-Ake, I then returned to Iberekodo where even traders had all gone home, and then I decided to wait on God, at a point, I decided to trek home.”
It was on the way home that the night marauders met him at a spot between Abule-Ayo and Asela just after Ogun State Water Corporation, “When I was between Asela and Abule-Ayo, two people on bike accosted me and the one with scar on his face asked me in English where I was going; I explained to them that we just moved to our house at Mawuko where I was going, they then offered to assist me with the one at the back coming down to allow me climb in-between, of course I was full of appreciation,” he recalled.
However, the appreciation was to change curse later as the supposed good Samaritans suddenly became agents of evil, “At a junction before Oke-Ona Grammar School, I didn’t know how the rider maneuvered that we all fell down, my concern was for my lap-top, business profiles and the N250, 000 cash I made from Lagos trip where I went to repair some damaged computers in my bag,” he stated, boasting how versatile he is in computer repair, engineering, installation and networking and internet connectivity.
He told our correspondent that the effort to get up and scamper for the bag was the last he made that day and for the six months to come as he said, “Before I could get up, one of them hit me on the neck from back and I passed out.”
The poor boy didn’t come home until six months after and when he was revived, he found himself in Aba the commercial nerve centre of Abia State where true and just angels truly revived and showed him way home.
Before he got lost in Abeokuta, he came back to life and was found in Aba, Abia State, he had undergone some dreaded, undesirable and unpalatable experiences as he recalled how he unconsciously found himself enchanted among eight others in an isolated room where they were to be killed for money rituals.
According to him, “I could remember that in a room, some strange people had removed my clothes and tied a small red cloth around my waist; on my knees I saw eight or nine other people, apparently my colleagues in the same predicament.
“While on our knees, they gave us big calabash to carry and shot it forward after which somebody came out to chant incantations and at the end would shake Saworo (the traditional talking-staff) at the shake of this Saworo, the person would disappear with the calabash then I knew they were money ritualists.
“The first and second persons disappeared in turns but when they got to me the third person, I didn’t disappear, the fourth and other people disappeared, later they came back to me and tried three more times and when they saw this, one person I assume is the head asked them to throw me into snake room to devour me.
“They collected the red cloth from my waist and pushed me into the room where I saw this big and threatening snake; it charged towards me to swallow me and it couldn’t for all the four times it tried after which it refused to come to me again, for four days I was in the room with the snake just walking about me but not charging to kill me again,” he recalled amidst tears.
He added that he resigned himself to a corner in the room with the snake, panting and shivering, “What I noticed was that I passed out again and some people came to carry me away.”
However, it should be noted that various concoctions forcefully given to the one-time vibrant and agile man at the end rendered him useless even to himself. Imagine the man kidnapped in a quiet area of Opeji road in Odeda, Ogun state unwittingly found by some good Nigerians by the refuse dump in Aba.
Razaq told our correspondent in an interview how he landed in Aba where a couple of guys found him in a canal and took him to a church thus: “It was about six months after when I just said: ‘where am I’ and I heard some people shouting: ‘make una come o, he don dey talk,’ then people rushed in and when I observed closely I saw that I was in a church. When I asked, they told me I have been in a pitiable state for over five months and that I couldn’t communicate or eat but that two people brought me to their church and that they have been praying and fasting for me.
“I couldn’t talk or communicate, they only gesticulated to me and through that I was able to tell them a lot, imagine whenever I want to eat, they would ask with sign language and whenever I want to bath they would take me to bathroom to bath for me,” he stressed.
He disclosed that the management of the Redeem Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Aba took up his feeding and accommodation expenses throughout his stay with them and that when they inquired later how he got himself into the mess, “because of language barrier, the only thing they could understand from me was Abeokuta; then somebody displayed the understanding and told me that since it was a week to Christmas, they would place me in care of some church members coming home for the festival for onward journey home.”
Before he left Aba, Razaq stated how the church as a whole bought a Nokia handset for him to aid constant communication and relationship with them after which they brought him to RCCG camp Mowe in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State in January, during the convention. At the RCCG, when his angels asked how he could get home at least even if through phone calls or contact addresses, alas! All memories have faded as he could only asked for access to a system through which he linked on to FaceBook, “because I have operated the it for a long time, I had to register afresh and then I searched for a friend and a business partner in Abeokuta, when I saw him, I told him and asked for his phone number. When he gave me the number, my church members told him to keep the good news to himself. It was after that I told my fellow Christians to take me to Mushin precisely Challenge.
It was in July that he finally came to himself as he again said, “the snake again came to fight me in dreams, it tried to devour me and when it came in that dream, it was consumed in a lake of fire, and thank God I was then fasting and praying right in the RCCG camp.”
The management of RCCG asked Razaq to stay put till August to attend the annual convention and the thanksgiving service in his honour after which they all agreed that he would be reunited with his family, “after the convention. I told them I have an aunt and some extended family members in Mushin because I was able to recall how I was coming to spend holiday with them.
“When I came to Challenge in Mushin, behold I was in front of the house, yet I was asking for my way to the house and when I couldn’t found my way, I then asked my way to Oliyide street where I saw aunty Shola who then alerted all family members,” he stressed.
Stating that he is a famous computer operator/engineer, Razaq who combined a cyber café business which served as his source of income through which he was able to sustain his parents and other family members with a part time academic studies in the University of Agriculture Abeokuta (UNAAB) stated categorically that none of her stepmothers had anything to do with his disappearance as was erroneously peddled.
Meanwhile, while in the RCCG camp Mowe in Ogun State, Razaq started reading the bible from Genesis and is almost through to the Revelation, recalling that he became a Born-again Christian in 2009.
He regretted missing his studies and the good people of Mawuko who once trooped out in their numbers including old and young; male and female to search everywhere for the missing man.
According to the chairman, Mawuko Community Development Association, Elder Simeon Erinoso: “It was yesterday when the son of our Assistant Secretary, Razaq Ajibawo got missing on his way back home from work, we all mourned him even while alive, we thank God that he is back to life, hale and hearty, forever we all shall remain grateful for God’s wonder in our lives. Razaq is one of our pride in Mawuko; he is well mannered and courteous,” he expressed.
He commended Ajibawo for his steadfastness in God because, “another person could have ran away from Mawuko, imagine somebody losing his child barely four months he moved into a new home; incidents like this could render a community desolate.”
However, as tormenting as this sad tale sounds, Razaq admitted that his stubbornness disobedience to parental instructions earned him the experience and recalled how he had on several occasions been warned not to stay out at night but the nature of his work that extends to late night wouldn’t allow him obey.
“I learnt a lot of lessons especially not to be disobedient to my parents; though I was combining work with school which was why I was staying out but my parents and even my business colleagues have always warned me that: ‘Shola, why do you like to always stay out at night?’ Now I have learnt that obedience pays.
“The second lesson I learnt is that even when in hell, cleave to whatever you believe can and would save you and the third lesson I learnt is to always give charity to the needy, I like helping people, that could be the reason God helped me. I hate discrimination of any sort against people; I am of the believe that ‘whatever you put into life is what you get back, when you do good, it is my believe that God will repay you when you least expect it,” he said.
On his regret, Razaq lamented that he had lost his one-time blooming business and that his office was burgled while he was away in the dungeon, saying, “when the people in your office came here visiting, they told me that my office was burgled and that all my equipments and computers were stolen; but I thank God I still have my life.”
To start life all over, Razaq said he would need about N600, 000 life line out of which he would register the business as he once did and would also equip the office with computers and laptop, generators as well as register the internet service.
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