In March 1975, four schoolboys left their homes in Lagos on what appeared to be an ordinary mission to buy textbooks.
None of them knew that they were about to disappear for two years into a remote camp where dozens of people were being held against their will and, according to one survivor, some were being sold to others.
Only two of the four boys would eventually return home.
The story, recalled by survivor Ismaila Fawehinmi years later, remains one of the chilling accounts of kidnapping and human trafficking in Nigeria’s history.
THE JOURNEY THAT CHANGED FOUR LIVES
On Monday, March 3, 1975, 14-year-old Ismaila Fawehinmi, a Class 3 student of Prince College, Cemetery Street, Ebute Metta, Lagos, arranged to meet three friends — Jimoh, Alani and Jacob.
Their plan was simple: travel to Yaba to buy textbooks.
Ismaila’s mother was away in Abeokuta attending a family ceremony. Before leaving home, he took N5.50 from money his mother had kept in the house.
The four boys walked to Atewo-lara bus stop, the nearest bus stop to their home.
There, they flagged down a taxi.
According to Ismaila, the driver spoke Yoruba fluently and agreed to take them for 80 kobo.
But shortly after they entered the vehicle, something inexplicable happened.
The boys could neither speak to one another nor challenge the driver when he drove past their intended destination.
Instead of heading towards Yaba, the taxi continued towards the outskirts of Lagos and eventually towards Sagamu.
The driver handed each boy a sweet.
They accepted them without question.
Ismaila later described the experience as though the four boys had become incapable of resisting what was happening around them.
INTO THE FOREST
The journey continued until nightfall.
The taxi eventually entered a forested area several kilometres away from the main road. Deep inside the thick vegetation stood a heavily fenced three-storey building surrounded by trees and dense bushes.
The place was reportedly owned by a man known as Yaro Tapa.
Tapa lived there with his four wives and children, while adjoining buildings housed numerous captives.
The taxi driver dropped the four boys at the compound and disappeared.
They never saw him again.
A CAMP FULL OF CAPTIVES
The boys soon discovered that they were not alone.
Men and women, boys and girls were being held at the compound.
The four friends were separated almost immediately.
Jacob and Jimoh were taken to one section, while Alani and Ismaila were taken elsewhere.
They were rarely allowed to see one another and were forbidden from communicating.
According to Ismaila, the captives needed permission even to leave their sections of the compound. They reportedly had to sign exit papers before being allowed to go anywhere, including to bathe at a nearby stream.
Ismaila later alleged that Yaro Tapa operated as an intermediary for people seeking human beings for criminal purposes.
He recalled that influential-looking men would arrive at night and negotiate over some of the captives.
One day, Jimoh was taken away.
Ismaila never saw his friend again.
LIFE INSIDE THE COMPOUND
Despite the harsh restrictions, the captives were reportedly fed and clothed.
They were expected to keep their rooms clean, bathe regularly and learn Hausa, which, according to Ismaila, was the only language permitted in the compound.
They were also given tasks.
One of them involved k!lling about 12 fowls daily and removing their intestines.
Ismaila said the intestines were fed to snakes kept by Tapa.
He recalled that several of the snakes were cobras and that the captives were also expected to clean the area where the snakes were kept.
For the boys, life became a routine of obedience, isolation and uncertainty.
TWO YEARS WITHOUT HOME
Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of Ismaila’s account was his description of how completely disconnected he became from his former life.
For a long period, he said,
he did not even think about his mother or his home.
Then, after about two years, something changed.
He began thinking about his mother and imagining the pain she must have suffered since his disappearance.
He eventually managed to speak with Alani, who revealed that he too had begun thinking about home.
The two boys started discussing ways to escape.
Several attempts failed.
Eventually, they devised a plan.
Ismaila would pretend that he wanted to go to the nearby stream to bathe. Alani would do the same.
The plan worked.
The two boys escaped from the compound and began the long journey back home.
TWO YEARS LATER, TWO BOYS RETURN
After two years in captivity, Ismaila and Alani finally returned home.
Of the four boys who had left Lagos together in March 1975, only the two survived to make it back.
Jacob and Jimoh remained missing.
Ismaila expressed gratitude that he had survived the ordeal and was able to tell his story.
Looking back, he wondered how many other people who disappeared across Nigeria might have suffered a similar fate.
He also wondered what had happened to the many people he had seen brought into the compound during his captivity.
His account raised disturbing questions about the existence of organised networks involved in kidnapping, trafficking and the exploitation of vulnerable people decades before such crimes became the subject of today’s widespread public attention.
A WARNING FROM HISTORY
The story of Ismaila Fawehinmi and his three friends is more than an account of four boys who disappeared.
It is a reminder that kidnapping and human trafficking are not new phenomena.
Long before modern surveillance systems, social media alerts and sophisticated law-enforcement databases, vulnerable people could disappear with little information available to their families.
In 1975, four Lagos schoolboys set out to buy textbooks.
Two returned two years later.
Two others never came home.
Their story remains a haunting reminder of the importance of protecting children, investigating disappearances and confronting the criminal networks that profit from human vulnerability.
Photo: Ismaila Fawehinmi
Story by Olusola Agbalu .
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