Police arrest two over the abduction of fashion designer in Lagos

By Our Correspondent

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested two suspects over their involvement in the abduction of a 22-year-old fashion designer, Ayanwole Oluwabamise, who went missing after boarding a bus operated by Lagos Bus Services Limited.

Confirming the arrest, the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu said "as soon as the report got to the police, the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Oluwabamise was immediately initiated."

"To ensure a speedy and diligent investigation, the Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alabi, immediately directed the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti to take over the case. In the course of an ongoing investigation, two suspects have been arrested and are currently helping in our investigation," he added. 

While assuring that the police detective will continue to work assiduously to find Oluwabamise and bring her abductors to justice, the Command wishes to appeal to anyone with useful information that could help in our investigation to promptly give it to us for further necessary actions.

Oluwabamise whereabouts had been unknown since she boarded an LBSL bus, popularly known as BRT, at the Chevron area of Lekki en route to Oshodi on February 25, 2022.

It waa gathered that the Ekiti State indigene who is about 5 feet plus tall, dark in complexion and speaks Yoruba and English languages, boarded the bus at 7 pm and became suspicious when the yet-to-be-identified driver told her to sit at one of the back seats.

According to a family relative, (names withheld), "Bamise, who became uncomfortable, sent out voice notes and a short clip to express her concern to one of her friends.

“On her way home, the driver picked up two men and one woman. This made her calm down a bit. Then she told us she would alight at Oworonshoki. We called her and noticed something was unusual about the way she was talking. We tried to reach out to her again but her phone was unreachable; then we waited a bit, thinking it was probably (due to a) low battery, only for her parents to contact us on Sunday that Bamise wasn’t home yet and since then we have been at the Oshodi BRT Terminal 3. We were told to sit and wait for the driver to come. But the driver did not show up,” the relative added.

It will be recalled that in a series of voice notes exchanges between Bamise and a friend, which were shared on social media, she was heard telling the friend in Yoruba that the bus stopped to pick her up but did not pick other passengers.

Sensing danger, she was said to have made a short video showing the silhouette of a driver and what looked like the vehicle number.