Funmi Adetona, wife of Globacom employee Olaoluwa Adetona, has appealed to the telecommunications company, security agencies and other Nigerian authorities to step up efforts to find her husband.
Mr Adetona, a roll-out manager at the Globacom company, was abducted at about 12:30 p.m. on 6 May 2025, while returning from an official assignment in Umuaka, Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State.
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The family said the 49-year-old was abducted when gunmen attacked him and two expatriates in the area.
The two expatriates reportedly escaped during the attack, while the hoodlums took away Mr Adetona and his vehicle, a Toyota Hilux truck.
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‘My initial suspicion’
In a series of video clips uploaded on Facebook on Sunday, Mrs Adetona told reporters in Ibadan, Oyo State, that she first became suspicious when she called her husband on the evening of 6 May 2025, and an unknown person answered his phone.
When she asked to speak with the phone’s owner, the person – believed to be one of her husband’s abductors – insulted her and refused to hand the phone over.
Repeated attempts to reach her husband through his other telephone line were unsuccessful, prompting her to contact his housemate in Imo State.
She said the housemate initially told her he also could not reach the husband since morning, before later confirming that her husband had been kidnapped.
Mrs Adetona explained that her husband had gone out for a site acquisition assignment with the two expatriates who had travelled from Lagos.
She was surprised to learn that the two expatriates were released while her husband remained in captivity.
The wife said this development raised suspicion because the company did not contact her immediately after the alleged incident.
She only began making inquiries after learning of the incident herself.
“Since that day till now, I have not spoken with my husband. I have not heard his voice or received any direct communication from him,” she said, shedding tears.
Mrs Adetona further alleged that the people who had her husband’s telephone later demanded N1 million before she could speak with him.
When she informed some of his colleagues, she was advised not to make further calls because the company was handling the situation.
The wife claimed that she was subsequently informed that the company had paid the ransom and that her husband would be released.
But that did not happen.
She expressed concern over what she described as inadequate communication between the company and the family.
Mrs Adetona later travelled to Lagos to meet Globacom officials, including the head of the Roll-out Department and the company’s chief security officer, to obtain information about her husband.
She was initially told that officials were unaware of the incident, but she insisted that the company ought to have information about an employee who disappeared while carrying out an official assignment.
She and other family members also travelled to Imo State, where they visited the police and sought assistance in tracing her husband.
“From May, June, July, August, September and even November (2025), we kept hearing that they were working on it. But nobody could tell us exactly what was happening,” she said.
Mrs Adetona said the family also met with Globacom officials in Lagos in November after receiving little or no information for several months.
She alleged that the family was repeatedly assured that efforts were ongoing to locate her husband, but that no concrete information about his whereabouts was subsequently communicated to them.
The development, she said, had taken a heavy toll on the family, particularly their three children, who continue to ask about their father.
She explained that before his disappearance, her husband regularly travelled between Imo and Ibadan to see his family, adding that his prolonged absence had been difficult for the children to understand.
“My children are not seeing their daddy, and they keep asking me every day, ‘Where is our daddy?’ I tell them that he went on a trip and that he will soon return.
“But it is over a year now. How long do I continue telling them that? He is across the country.
“Before this happened, he used to come home every fortnight to check on us and then return to work. Now, for over a year, we have not seen him,” she said.
The wife stressed that the disappearance had affected her husband’s wider family, especially his mother.
Mrs Adetona recalled that her father-in-law died on 6 April 2026, after reportedly struggling emotionally with the disappearance of his son.
According to her, the family recently buried him. She added that the prolonged uncertainty surrounding Mr Adetona’s whereabouts had compounded their grief.
She said her husband’s mother had also become seriously ill and was now unable to walk without assistance.
“It has been very difficult for everybody. My children, his siblings and his mother are all affected. I have to remain strong because of the children,” she said.
Mrs Adetona also queried reports allegedly presented to the family concerning her husband’s vehicle.
She said the family was informed that security operatives had found the husband’s vehicle and that it had been shot at, with suggestions that the victim might have been killed.
The distraught wife said the family had not been presented with evidence establishing that he was dead.
“We saw the vehicle. There is no way somebody would be shot, and there would not be blood in the vehicle. There was no drop of blood. If he is dead, give us proof. There is no proof that he is dead,” she said.
Accountability, not accusations
Mrs Adetona stressed that her primary demand was not to accuse anyone but to know what happened to her husband.
“I don’t know what is happening. Are they playing on us? They should produce my husband,” she said.
She also questioned the reported release of the two expatriates who were abducted alongside her husband.
“The expatriates are out. How did they come out? Why is it my husband alone? My husband is a Nigerian. Why are they not looking for him? Why are they not doing anything?” she said.
Globacom continues payment of salaries
Mrs Adetona expressed surprise that Globacom continued paying her husband’s salary into her account in September 2025, despite his continued absence.
She stated that the family recently engaged a lawyer to demand answers from the company formally.
According to her, the lawyer had written several letters to Globacom concerning the matter, with about four letters sent so far without a desired response.
The wife then appealed to Globacom, the police, the State Security Service and other relevant authorities to provide the family with clear information about the case and intensify efforts to locate her husband.
“What I want is for them to bring my husband back to me. If he is alive, let them find him and bring him home. If anything has happened to him, let the family be given the truth and evidence.
“We cannot continue like this. It has been 16 months. We need to know where our husband, father and son is,” she said.
Police speak
When contacted on Monday, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Adetona was indeed abducted in the state on 6 May 2025.
Mr Okoye, a deputy superintendent of police, however, said the police in the state were “doing their best” to rescue the victim.
The spokesperson said the police had done “necessary tracking analysis” and are currently conducting a “thorough investigation” to free the victim.
“We are hoping that, in no distant time, our investigations and operations will definitely yield results and possibly rescue the victim,” he said.
Our reporter queried why the police had not rescued the victim since his abduction about 16 months ago, despite the tracking analysis and investigations conducted.
But Mr Okoye explained that the rescue of kidnap victims was usually conducted in a “coordinated manner” to ensure the safety of the victims in captivity.
“We have been doing our best,” he said of the police efforts to rescue Mr Adetona.
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