Police, Togolese Community trail man who disappear with daughter

Ogunsakin Mustapha
6 Min Read
Jhon Sowou Mawoussi, Sofia, and Wife, Prudence

By Jibril Ibrahim Ikowe

The Lagos State Police Command, the Togolese Consular Office in Lagos and the entire Togolese community in the metropolis are trying to unravel the strange and mysterious circumstances of a  36 years old Togolese, Jhon Sowou Mawoussi who disappeared with his own daughter, Sofia, for more than a year now.

Mawoussi’s wife, Seglo Prudence is presently distraught, not only about the disappearance of her husband, but also about the loss of her first and only child. She had tried to trace both through their families here in Nigeria and also Togo, all to no avail. The Togolese community has also escalated the case to an international level, using vast networks to search for them in the Republic of Benin, Togo and Nigeria. However, it has not yielded much result.

Sofia

 

Prudence, a native of Vogan, Togo lives in Lagos. A fashion designer, she narrated her ordeal to www.thegavel.com.ng thus: 

“Am a fashion designer doing very well when I met Jhon who happens to be a  Togolese, but his job was not ok because his salary was nothing to write home about. We proposed to marry with the hope that with my effort I can be able to change him or put him on track for a business;

Along the line he impregnated me. I was operated on at the point of delivery, and you know that delivery through operation   is very expensive in Nigeria. Things became so unbearable for me and him because I was the provider of whatever we take or eat in the house.

So I got a maid ( house girl) job in Oman in the Gulf of Arab. It was a two years contract in which we both decided that I should go.  So we both agreed to keep our daughter, Sofia with my brother, Mr Seglo Kangni Sunday and his wife at number 19 Akintunde Close, Okota, Lagos, because he was not financially in a position to take care of the child. The upbringing of Sofia in the custody of my brother and his wife was never a problem. 

He saw me off to the airport the very day of my departure from Lagos. That was on February 5, 2019. By that time  the little Sofia was a year and 10 months old. Everything I send for the up keeping of the girl is not hidden to him and my brother and wife.

Police invitation

My contract ended about six or seven days to my arrival  to Nigeria, Mr  Jhon Sowou Mawoussi went to my brother’s house as early as 6:30 am of January 31, 2021 and told my  brother and  his wife that he was going buy some clothes for Sofia, and needed to take her along to get the correct measurement”. I arrived on February 5, 2021.

That was how he disappeared  with Sofia till date. No one both from his family or the woman’s family in Togo or Nigeria  knows the whereabouts of both father and daughter.

When Prudence arrived a few days later, precisely on February 5,2021, she called him but his numbers were not responding. They had used the same lines chatting when she was still in Oman. “I decided to report him to the family but still he refused to show up. It was at this point that I reported it to the Togolese Embassy to take charge of the case”, she said further.

A member of the Togolese High Council, Hon  Francis Sossou Kokou was assigned by the Embassy to take up the case. The case was reported to Okota Police Station, where it was referred to the Human Rights Department. Miss Florence Odion was assigned as the Investigation Police Officer (IPO) of the case. The police issued an invitation letter to be submitted to him wherever he is spotted. 

Seglo Prudence, Sofia’s mother

Hon Francis  Sossou Kokou also invited him to the embassy through the contact given by Prudence. Jhon honored the invitation, and for the first time since her arrival back to Nigeria, Prudent met with her husband. He told the Embassy officials that he took the girl to Togo because he wanted her to attend a Togolese school where she will have the opportunity to learn and speak French language. He even gave the address and the contact of his family where the girl can be located. However, when the address was visited by officials, it turned out that it was a fake address.

After he left the consular office that day, Jhon switched off all his phone lines. Till date, no one has ever seen or heard of him again. Prudence has since been  calling on all well meaning Nigerians, togolese both home and outside Togo as well as the law enforcement agencies to please help to locate her daughter Sofia. 

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