Ayowole Adekonipekun, a resident of Osogbo, has appealed to the Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Kayode Egbetokun, to help in locating his wife, Cpl Ruth Ayowole, who went missing while on official duty in Abia.

Mr Adekonipekun said on Friday in Osogbo that his wife, with service number 068986, was serving with the anti-robbery unit of the Osun Police Command.

The husband said Mrs Ruth and four of her colleagues went missing on February 13 after an ambush during their official assignment to Abia.

Mr Adekonipekun said his wife and other officers left Osogbo on February 12 and spent the night at a hotel in Asaba.

According to him, he later learnt that they were ambushed between Anambra and Abia.

“I chatted with my wife till around 8:10 a.m. on February 13 before they set out for the journey, but two hours later, when I tried to contact her, her number was unreachable.

” I later lodged a complaint with the officer in charge of the anti-robbery unit and the commissioner of police, who informed me that they had sent a follow-up team to verify the state of the missing officers.

” It was later that we heard that one of the officers, named Sodiq, had escaped the ambush and returned to Osogbo, but didn’t know what happened to the rest of the team,” said Mr Adekonipekun.

The husband of the policewoman said since then, there had been no news about the missing police officers.

” Others and I have sent petitions to the Police Service Commission, Zone IX in Osogbo, and the state police command regarding the officers’ whereabouts, but there has been no response.

” I want to appeal to the I-G to please unravel the whereabouts of my wife and other officers; it has not been easy to live without my wife in the last two months,” he said.

When contacted, SP Yemisi Opalola, the police public relations officer in Osun, said the command, Imo, and the army have been working to find the missing officers.

Ms Opalola said the families of the missing officers had met with the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mohammed Umar-Abba, who briefed them on the efforts to trace the missing officers and urged them to exercise more patience.

(NAN)