A grieving father, Samuel Jonah, has raised the alarm over the mysterious deaths of his three children, saying he suspects foul play after their bodies were discovered near a stream inside the 32 Artillery Brigade Army Barracks in Akure, Ondo State.
According to a report by The Nation, Jonah, a farmer and security worker originally from Benue State, said he was left devastated after his 11-year-old twin sons, Joshua and Jacob, and their five-year-old sister, Blessing, were found dead on Saturday.
Jonah, who has lived in Akure since 2003, said his children disappeared after he and their mother left the farm, where the children had been playing.
He told The Nation that he had instructed the children to return home by 6pm, but when he and his wife returned at the appointed time, none of them was there.
Alarmed, he returned to the farm on his motorcycle to search for them when they failed to show up.
The worried father subsequently reported the disappearance to Military Police officers at the barracks, triggering a search for the children.
The search continued into Saturday morning, with members of their church joining the family in prayers.
Jonah said he was still praying when he received a call asking him to return to the barracks.
He said soldiers questioned him about whether he had any disagreement with anyone before taking him towards a small stream close to his farm.
It was there, he said, that he was informed that his three children had been found dead.
Jonah said the discovery left him stunned, particularly because all three children were found in the same location.
He said their bodies had initially been covered with leaves, which he personally removed.
But what he allegedly saw on the bodies deepened his suspicion.
According to him, there was blood around the ears of the children, while he also observed blood from the body of his youngest daughter.
The bereaved father further claimed that the children were not completely soaked and that he did not observe water in their stomachs, leading him to question whether drowning was responsible for their deaths.
“I do not think they died through drowning. Something must have happened to them,” he alleged.
Jonah said he suspected that bandits or other unidentified persons might have been involved, although he admitted that he had no direct evidence linking anyone to the deaths.
He therefore called for a thorough investigation to establish exactly what happened to his children.
‘Three Children Cannot Just Die Like That’
Also speaking, Jonah’s brother, Mazi Hassan, described the incident as shocking and demanded justice for the family.
Hassan questioned how three children from the same family, including a set of twins, could die under such circumstances.
He urged the authorities to thoroughly investigate the deaths and ensure that anyone found responsible is brought to justice.
The Ondo State Police Command has confirmed the incident and said an investigation had commenced to unravel the circumstances surrounding the children’s deaths.
The Command’s spokesperson, Jimoh Abayomi, said a search operation was launched after the children were reported missing, culminating in the discovery of their bodies the following day.
The cause of death remains a subject of investigation.
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