14-year-old girl disappears with 20-month-old toddler

Juliana Francis

A visually-impaired woman, Agnes Jackson, 32, has asked Nigerians to help arrest her 14-year-old step-daughter Joy Forte.

She said Forte left their home at House 9 Lambe Street, Jimoh Bus Stop, Akowonjo, Lagos State with her one and eight months old baby, Excel Forte.

According to Jackson, who has been visually impaired for six years, the incident happened two weeks ago, and nobody has seen Joy and Excel.

She said Joy packed some of the baby’s items and made away with her Automatic Teller Machine Card and some cash.

Jackson recollected she had briefly stepped into the apartment and in less than five minutes, Joy vanished with the younger child.

She also said Joy had been assisting her in the house because she was partially impaired.

She said, “Everything happened on Tuesday this week. I was inside with my child, Excel and my stepdaughter, Joy. Excel was playing and then she opened the door to the passage, I told Joy to bring her back inside. But Excel refused and Joy had to leave alone.

“When Joy told me that Excel refused to be brought back to the apartment, I told her to allow her to be. I however cautioned her not to allow the baby to go to the backyard. I also warned her not to leave the passage, and to keep watch over her sister.

“Some minutes later, maybe about five minutes max, I didn’t hear noise, so I decided to check on them. I stopped and shouted both their names and searched everywhere, but I couldn’t find them.

“Other people joined in searching for them, but we still couldn’t find them. We noticed that Joy packed some of my baby’s items like body cream, and clothes, she took my ATM card and the sun of N3,500 left in my handbag.

“She also took the baby’s towel and my wrapper. The incident happened at about 1.30pm on that Tuesday and since then we’ve neither seen nor heard from them. Nobody seems to know their whereabouts.

“Please if anyone sees or knows her whereabouts, they should please contact us. Joy is my husband’s daughter and she was brought to stay with us in January this year.

“My major health challenge is my eye and aside from that I have not been feeling too well. This is part of the reason Joy is the one helping me out, taking my daughter to school and also helping out in the house.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Esther Child Rights Foundation, Mrs Esther Ekwem, who is working with other relevant agencies to help Jackson locate the children, said, “I don’t understand why the woman is alone and she’s even pregnant. She cannot see and people can easily take what belonged to her and she wouldn’t know.

“People should be careful about the people they bring into their homes to assist them, people they bring to take care of their children. Nigerians should look at these pictures and help in rescuing these children. Nobody knows where to go and look for them. Joy doesn’t have a phone so the police cannot track her. The woman is going through hell right now, she cannot see and still, her child is missing.”