The family of Akure-based businessman and farmer, Gbenga Joseph Ogunyemi, popularly known as Abalawa, is pleading for answers months after his sudden disappearance under mysterious circumstances.
Ogunyemi, 52, has not been seen since October 21, 2025. Despite search efforts led by community leaders, local hunters and security agencies, only his abandoned vehicle has been recovered—deepening fears of foul play.
According to his wife, who spoke to investigative journalist Babatunde Bamigboye, her husband placed an unusually tense call to her on the afternoon of his disappearance.
She said he spoke in hushed, hurried tones and instructed her to call him back in ten minutes and to record whatever conversation ensued.
“I did exactly as he told me,” she said. “But when I dialed back, his phone was suddenly unreachable. It has remained switched off since that moment.”
The unsettling phone call followed Ogunyemi’s last known movement—driving out of Akure toward Idanre that afternoon.
Investigators are now digging into several leads, including a long-running and bitter family land dispute.
Ogunyemi was said to have been entangled in a heated conflict with his cousin, Thomas Adetila, over rights to a family farm in Idanre.
Adetila had rented the land for 18 years until the family reassigned it to another relative, Sunkanmi, who was aligned with Ogunyemi.
The reallocation triggered a fierce legal battle, which Ogunyemi and his allies eventually won in court.
Security agents have not publicly linked the dispute to the disappearance, but family members say the timing raises troubling questions.
For now, the Ogunyemi family continues to hope and pray for answers—while living with the painful silence of a man who vanished, a phone that never rang again, and an investigation clouded by uncertainty.
Credit: Omo Edema
