However, concern grew when Idah’s phone became unreachable later that morning.
A Lagos-based family has raised the alarm over the mysterious disappearance of their father, Mr. Innocent Idah, alleging a conspiracy and cover-up involving Blessed Friyo Motors Express, as well as police officers in Sabo Police Station in Lagos and Kwali Police Station in Abuja.
Narrating the incident, one of Idah’s family members said their father left Lagos for Abuja on Thursday, April 17, 2025, travelling via a night bus operated by Blessed Friyo Motors Express.
“On Friday morning, around 7:51 am, my big sister called him and he told her he was approaching Gwagwalada,” the family source recounted.
First Signs of Disappearance
However, concern grew when Idah’s phone became unreachable later that morning.
“My elder brother tried his number around past 11am, but his number was switched off. We waited from Friday till Sunday, thinking his phone was stolen and he would reach us, but we didn’t hear from him.”
The family began making inquiries on Monday, April 21.
The family source said, “One of my brothers went to report on Monday, 21st of April at the Kwali Police Station, Abuja, and the Yangoji Road Safety, tracked his IMEl number on his phone case.
“We got the manifest of the company ‘Blessed Friyo Motors Express’ at Jibowu, Lagos, Nigeria.
“We saw that they filled the manifest for my dad and put his number as his next of kin. We recognised that the handwriting wasn’t my dad’s writing.”
When Idah’s son visited the Blessed Friyo Motors Express on April 23, seeking answers, he was met with suspicion.
“They were shocked and told my brother that my father boarded a cargo bus to Abuja, and they had an accident. They said there were three people inside the bus,” the family source said.
“He asked if they had been to the hospital where he was kept. The man said yes and that he was just returning from the hospital in Abuja to Lagos that morning.
“My brother asked for the name of the hospital, he said he didn’t know the name. Then, he changed it again and said that the bus collided with a truck carrying cows, and 10 people died.
“He even asked them that if there were three people that boarded the bus, how come 10 people died? There was no response.
“My brother requested for his dead body and they changed the narrative immediately, that the bus was burnt and everyone inside the bus got burnt. My brother left and told them he was coming back with his lawyer.”
Further attempts to reach Idah’s number yielded puzzling results as the family source said, “Immediately my brother got back, I tried the number around 1:15 pm, it rang. The person ended the call and switched it off immediately. It was tried several times but it remained switched off.”
On April 24, the family reported the matter at Sabo Police Station, Yaba, Lagos. But before they arrived, Blessed Friyo Motors’s manager, Mr. Nwankwo Friday, had reportedly made a prior report and arrived with four soldiers, allegedly to intimidate Idah’s son.
The family source said, “On Friday, 24th of April 2025, my brother went to the Sabo Police Station in Yaba to report the issue.
“Before he got there, the man, Mr. Nwankwo Friday, had already reported to the police station and they were defending him, plus he brought four soldiers to scare my brother from talking but he wasn’t intimidated by them.”
“The IPO (Mr. James) in Sabo Police Station started telling my brother to accept his condolences. My brother rebuked him and told him that my father was alive,” the family source added.
Despite official claims of an accident and a fatal fire, the family raised numerous unanswered questions.
The family said, “They (at the police station) repeated the same thing, that he had an accident and he was burnt and everything got burnt and rain fell all through the night and washed the bones away.
“My brother told them that if they claimed that his body was burnt, they should provide his bones so that he could go and bury him, and if it was an accident and he died, they should provide his dead body. Bones don’t get burnt or destroyed easily.
“Then, one woman (a policewoman) asked the man what about the number plate of the bus, that number plates don’t get destroyed easily like that, he couldn’t talk.”
The family source further explained, “My brother asked the man, if it was an accident or the bus was burnt, which police station recorded it, did the FRSC also record it? Were firefighters involved in the case? And which hospital and mortuary were involved in it? There was no response.
“Around 12:55 pm, my brother’s wife tried my dad’s number and it rang twice before they switched it off.
“My brother asked for my dad’s phone, since he was dead, where was his phone? They said they didn’t see his phone. He asked them if they didn’t see his phone, how come the phone rang when he claimed that everything got burnt? They didn’t say anything.
“The policeman told my brother and Mr. Nwankwo Friday that they should meet in Abuja on Monday, 28th of April, 2025 so he could take my brother to where he claimed everything happened.”
Fruitless Search in Abuja
On April 25, the family searched hospitals and mortuaries around Abuja but found no trace of Idah.
Further police inquiries led to delays and shifting timelines.
“On Saturday, 25th of April 2025, my brother in Abuja and my cousin went to all the mortuaries and hospitals in Abuja around the place where they claimed that the incident took place, my dad was not found.
“On Monday, my brother went to report to another police station in Panti, Yaba Lagos. While reporting to the policeman in SCID, the IPO of Sabo Police Station called my brother and told him that Mr. Nwankwo Friday said he was restless and he couldn’t travel on that Monday and they should leave it till tomorrow, which was the 1st of May, 2025,” the family said.
According to the family source, the SCID officer told Idah’s son to get a petition from their lawyer, which he did on April 30, and gave to the SCID.
“We were told that they need to commission the petition before they can arrest them,” the source said.
“The DPO, Abayomi in Pyakasa Police Station, Lugbe, Abuja, Kwali Police Station and Yangoji Road Safety were telling my brother to gather his family in Lagos and do a little memorial for him.
“The policemen are all playing games. They told him exactly what the police in Sabo said. They know what is going on and are refusing to do anything for us.
“Nigerians please help us. We have tried everything we can do. Please, help us tell Mr. Nwankwo Friday to release my father from wherever they have kept him.”
SaharaReporters contacted Mr. Nwankwo Friday of Blessed Friyo Motors Express to explain what happened to Mr. Idah and how he and his organisation handled the matter.
Friday confirmed that Idah travelled in the transport company’s vehicle under his supervision from Jibowu terminal, Lagos, to Abuja at 6 p.m. on April 17, 2025.
He said, “The vehicle left on Thursday April 17, because it was a night bus. The driver carried Mr. Innocent and Quick Link Manager.
“The next day in the morning, I started calling to know their whereabouts because it was not only that vehicle that I loaded. I loaded up to four buses that day, but the driver’s number was not connecting.
“Because Innocent also put his number as the next of kin, I called Innocent to know whether I could get him, but the call did not connect. I did not get any information till past 3 pm when I started calling some buses that moved late.
“I called the one that said he had passed Lokoja if he saw the driver, Joseph, but he said no. In the evening, somebody called me to tell me that he heard my vehicle had an accident at Kwali, Abuja.
“When I asked which of the vehicles, he said the first bus. I called the Zuba branch chairman who rushed there and investigated who loaded the vehicle which I told him I was the one.
“I asked the chairman to send me the pictures of the vehicle and when he sent them, I confirmed that it was my vehicle. The fire was too much. Because the trailer, a 15-ton trailer, carried many cows with some passengers on top.
“The trailer collided with my vehicle face-to-face because it is like they are doing construction work on the other lane of the road, so, all the vehicles were going through one lane.
“The trailer pushed my driver inside the gutter, and the trailer also fell on top of the Hiace, and the vehicle caught fire. The fire burnt everyone inside, including the driver, Joseph, the Quick Link manager and Mr. Innocent himself.
“According to people there, there was no fire service even to quench the fire. The fire burnt from Friday to Saturday morning before it was quenched.
“I sent one of my boys from Lagos to Abuja, and the Zuba branch manager told me the fire was too much. Then, I reported the incident to the Kwali Police Division.”
When I asked how it was possible that Mr. Idah was the only passenger in the vehicle moving from Lagos to Abuja, there was no response.
Friday was also confronted with the claim of Idah’s family that at 7:51 am on Friday, April 18, his number (Idah) was available and he spoke with them when he told them that they were approaching Gwagwalada.
He only stammered without providing any meaningful explanation on Idah’s family claim, which contradicts his claim of having called Idah’s driver and Idah himself on Friday morning without connecting with them.
Also confronted with the family’s claim that, as of April 24, Idah’s phone number was still going through, Friday denied being aware of the number being available, saying he did not call it again.
He claimed that the families of the driver and the Quick Link manager were contacted.
He said, “But there was no way to get Innocent’s family’s contact. I ran to MTN but they were not open because it was a public holiday.
“On Tuesday after Easter Sunday and Monday, I went back to the MTN office to get across to Innocent’s family. They said it is not their duty, that I should go to the police.”
“I went to Sabo Police Station in Lagos here and they said they would write to MTN,” he said, claiming that the Kwali police in Abuja posted the incident on social media.
However, SaharaReporters’ checks on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and other social media platforms returned no positive results for police reports on such an accident, not by the official Nigeria Police Force or the FCT Police Command. Also, no search showed any social media account of the Kwali Police Division, Abuja.
Friday claimed that Idah’s family must have seen the police report of the accident; hence, one of the victim’s sons met him at their park in Jibowu, Lagos.
He said, “I didn’t even know he was the one. He said his father’s number did not connect, but I told him I had been trying to get their number. I showed him some videos and some evidence. He insisted that his father’s number did not connect and I told him it was the same on my phone.
“The man insisted that his father was not dead and I told him I couldn’t lie about the accident. But he said he would write to the IG of police.”
Confronted with the allegation of the family that he (Friday) went to Sabo Police Station after Idah’s son met him at the motor park in Jibowu and that he used four soldiers to intimidate Idah’s son, Friday denied the allegation.
“No! The incident happened, and the following day, I went to the Sabo Police Station to make a report. They told me I would go to Abuja because the incident happened there.
“Before God and man, I swear with my children, if I said so or intimidated him… how can I intimidate someone whose father is dead?”
Friday rather alleged, “He came to the office, though I was not there, but he met my people, he called one soldier, Abalti Barracks, to bring his boys to come and close the office, that as his father died, we were still working.
“The soldiers he called came and told him to take it easy. Even as he went to Sabo, they still told him to take it easy. Nobody fought him or challenged him. He is the one who called the soldiers.”
When asked why Idah’s mobile line later connected, according to his family, and why the police in Sabo in Lagos and Kwali in Abuja offered their condolences to the family and asked them to go and organise a memorial for their father instead of taking them to the scene of the incident and explaining the investigation conducted, Friday said, “I don’t know.”
Friday later said, “I did call soldiers on this man and I don’t know if his father’s phone number is going or not.
“When he asked that question at Kwali police station, they told him the phone might have fallen off somewhere. But since then, I have been trying the number on my phone but it is not connecting on my phone. Even the day they came to complain, I dialled the number but it was switched off.
“I don’t know whether the phone fell out of his hand before the accident because the truck hit them directly.”
He was asked why media reports about the accident had surfaced as early as April 17, 2025, and whether his company, in collaboration with the police, had managed the incident in a way that prevented any media outlet, blogger, or social media user from reporting it at the time.
He said, “It was three people that died, not 10. There is a police report. They posted it on Facebook.”
SaharaReporters asked Friday to provide the police report on the incident, contact information for the families of the other two victims, the phone number of the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at Kwali Police Division, as well as photos and videos from the scene of the accident.
However, Friday only provided the IPO’s phone number and some photos and videos, which he claimed were from the accident scene.
When SaharaReporters dialled the number—which Truecaller identified as belonging to one “Lucky Dgreat”—the call did not connect.
Furthermore, SaharaReporters conducted a fact-check on the photos and videos supplied by Friday but found no evidence of such an incident online. The only similar case found was an earlier accident in Abuja involving the police, which occurred months ago and not in April. This discrepancy raised doubts about the authenticity of the materials Friday provided.
As of the time this report was filed, Friday had still not provided the contact details of the families of the other two victims involved in the reported accident.
Additionally, when SaharaReporters contacted Mr. James, the IPO at Sabo Police Station in Lagos, he denied ever offering condolences to Mr. Idah’s family. However, he confirmed that the family had reported the incident to the station a day after staff from the transport company had done so.
James, who confirmed that he is the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) handling the case, said, “Me? Offered them condolences? I can’t do that and I can never say such.”
He added that he is not permitted to grant interviews.
However, a source in the station explained what he knew about the matter, saying, “Friyo came to complain that his vehicle, which he had loaded for Abuja, got burnt to ashes.
“We told him we deal with jurisdiction. This incident happened in Abuja, not here. He said he had already reported that matter in Abuja.
“A day after he came, a woman came to complain… you know what, that young man shouldn’t mislead you. No one offered them condolences.”
When asked whether it was possible for a vehicle involved in an accident to burn to ashes along with its occupants and leave no trace, he declined to respond.
Instead, the police source at the station said, “I did not visit the scene. It happened in Abuja, and we are in Lagos. I can’t just conclude and say it is possible or it is not possible. That question should be for the IPO that investigated the matter there.”
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Family Alleges Cover-Up In Disappearance Of Lagos Man After Abuja Trip, Accuses Transport Firm, Police Of Conspiracy – Sahara Reporters
