Seventy-four-year-old retired technician, Francis Azenabor, has spent nearly two years searching for his son, Osas, who vanished after a police raid in the Ketu area of Lagos State. He insists the Nigeria Police must produce his son “dead or alive.”

Azenabor, who hails from Ego Nyemi, Ishan in Edo State, said the ordeal began when his daughter-in-law called to say Osas had phoned her from Ketu Police Station. Osas, a commercial transporter based in Ikorodu, had reportedly been arrested during a raid under the Ketu bridge while waiting for passengers.

Because Osas had no phone, a local collector of daily transport contributions lent him a handset so he could call his wife. He told her he was in a korope bus with other arrested men and urged her to come quickly to secure his bail before they were moved.

By the time she arrived from Ikorodu, officers at Ketu Police Station denied knowledge of any such arrest. His name was not on the notice board or in the station records. Her frantic search at Ogudu and Mafoluku police stations, and later at the Badagry Prison Yard, yielded nothing.

The following day, Azenabor and his wife travelled to Lagos to join the search. Using the number of the Good Samaritan who lent Osas the phone, they traced the man, who pointed out a police officer he said led the arrest. But when Azenabor confronted the officer, the encounter quickly turned hostile.

Attempts to get the Divisional Police Officer at Ketu involved were rebuffed. Azenabor said the DPO told him to “go and arrest the officer” himself and later denied any responsibility when the matter reached higher authorities.

With a lawyer’s help, Azenabor petitioned the command. At the state headquarters, a team leader, identified as Superintendent Abacho David, admitted his squad conducted a raid and arrested four people, but claimed they were released on the road and denied picking up Osas.

Azenabor alleges that some senior officers are shielding those involved. He recounts being beaten alongside his lawyer at a station after the same contribution collector suddenly branded them “kidnappers.”

Osas, 40, is a father of three. His children have reportedly dropped out of school as the family’s finances collapsed. “If he is alive, let me see him. If he is dead, let them tell me,” Azenabor said. “I am begging the Nigeria Police and the government: produce my son, dead or alive.”