ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- More than a year after her husband, a 49-year-old Globacom roll-out manager, allegedly disappeared while on official assignment in Imo State, Funmi Adetona is still searching for answers.
For Funmi, 46, the uncertainty has become unbearable.
She does not know whether her husband, Olaoluwa Adetona, is alive or dead. She said she has neither seen nor spoken to him since May 6, 2025, when he was allegedly abducted while carrying out a site acquisition assignment in Imo State.
What the family wants now, she said, is simple: credible information about his whereabouts and, if he is dead, proof of his death.
“Even if he is dead, give us proof. There is no proof that he is dead,” the distraught woman told journalists while appealing to Globacom, security agencies and other relevant authorities to intensify efforts to establish her husband’s fate.
According to Funmi, Olaoluwa had travelled to Imo State for work with two expatriates who were said to have come from Lagos when the incident occurred.
She said she became worried on the evening of May 6, 2025, after calling her husband around 9pm and discovering that someone else had answered his phone.
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The person, she said, initially told her that Olaoluwa would be given the phone when he was found, but allegedly became hostile when she called again and insisted on speaking directly with her husband.
Funmi said she then contacted the housemaid in Imo State, who also told her that attempts to reach Olaoluwa had failed.
It was at that point, she said, that she learnt that her husband had allegedly been kidnapped.
“I called my husband around 9pm. They did not reach out to us from the office. Nobody contacted me until I called and started making inquiries,” she said.
The situation became more troubling for the family when Funmi was informed that the two expatriates who had reportedly been with her husband had been released, while Olaoluwa remained missing.
She said the circumstances surrounding their release and her husband’s continued absence had left the family with unanswered questions.
According to Funmi, the people who had possession of her husband’s phone subsequently demanded N1m before allowing her to speak with him.
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She said she reported the development to some of Olaoluwa’s colleagues but was advised not to call the number again because the company was allegedly handling the situation.
Funmi said the family was later informed that ransom had been paid and that Olaoluwa would be released.
But the promised reunion never happened.
“They said they were bringing him back in the course of the week. It happened on a Tuesday. All through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, they were saying they were bringing him,” she said.
Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, but there was still no direct communication with Olaoluwa.
Determined to find out what had happened, Funmi said she travelled to Lagos and met officials of Globacom, including the Head of the Roll-out Department and the company’s Chief Security Officer.
She said the family was initially told that the company was unaware of the incident, before officials later acknowledged that they had received information about it.
The family also travelled to Imo State and approached the police over the matter.
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Funmi alleged that the police informed the family that a confrontational meeting involving Globacom officials would be necessary as part of efforts to clarify the circumstances surrounding Olaoluwa’s disappearance.
Despite repeated visits and inquiries, however, she said the family was unable to obtain a satisfactory explanation.
“What is it that you are working on from May, June, July, August, September and November? At the end of the day, they couldn’t tell us anything. They kept saying they were working on it,” she said.
By November 2025, Funmi said, the family had returned to Lagos without a clear answer.
She alleged that company officials subsequently visited the family to express concern and offer reassurance, but that meaningful communication later stopped.
A family left in a state of uncertainty
While the search for Olaoluwa continued, Funmi said the emotional burden increasingly fell on their three children.
She said the children had repeatedly asked about their father, forcing her to give them reassurances she was no longer certain she could sustain.
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“My children are not seeing their daddy and they keep asking me every day, ‘Where is their dad?’ I tell them that he went on a trip and that he is coming back very soon.
“But it is over a year now. How long do I continue telling them that? Before this happened, he used to come home every fortnight to check on us. Now, for more than a year, we have not seen him,” she said.
The disappearance has also, according to Funmi, taken a toll on Olaoluwa’s immediate family.
She disclosed that her father-in-law died on April 6, 2026, after allegedly becoming emotionally distressed over his son’s disappearance.
The family recently buried him, she said, adding that Olaoluwa’s mother had also become seriously ill and could no longer walk without assistance.
For Funmi, however, the most painful part remains the uncertainty over what happened to her husband.
She questioned information given to the family concerning Olaoluwa’s vehicle, which she said was reportedly recovered after it had allegedly come under gunfire.
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The family inspected the vehicle, she said, but found no evidence that conclusively established that Olaoluwa had been shot or killed.
“We saw the vehicle. There is no way somebody would be shot and there would not be a splash of blood in the vehicle. There was no drop of blood.
“How could you tell me he might have been shot? Maybe the bullet hit him and he died somewhere. Even if he is dead, give us proof. There is no proof that he is dead,” she said.
Funmi stressed that her appeal was not intended to accuse any particular individual or organisation of wrongdoing.
Rather, she said, the family wanted those handling the matter to provide a credible account of what had happened to Olaoluwa.
“I don’t know. Are they playing on us? They should produce my husband,” she said.
Legal intervention
With the matter unresolved, Funmi said the family had recently engaged a lawyer to formally communicate with Globacom.
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According to her, the lawyer had written about four letters to the telecommunications company seeking clarification and action over Olaoluwa’s disappearance.
She said earlier attempts by lawyers acting for the family to obtain satisfactory responses had yielded little progress.
Funmi also disclosed that Globacom continued paying her husband’s salary into her account in September 2025, despite his prolonged absence.
The payment, she said, had further raised questions for the family about the company’s understanding of Olaoluwa’s status.
“Globacom should produce my husband. At least the expatriates, they have them. My husband is a Nigerian. Why are they not looking for him? Why are they not doing anything about it?” she asked.
For more than a year, Funmi said, the family had lived between hope and fear, unable to mourn Olaoluwa because there was no confirmation of his death and unable to reunite with him because his whereabouts remained unknown.
Her appeal is now directed at Globacom, the police, security agencies and anyone with information that could help locate him.
If Olaoluwa is alive, she wants him brought home.
If he is dead, she wants evidence.
What she can no longer bear, she said, is the silence.