Foundation for missing persons set to launch in Lagos

Remi Owolabi-Ariye Foundation (ROAF), a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to offering initial aid and support to families of missing persons in Nigeria is set for launch. 

In a statement yesterday, Mrs. Folasade Obasohan, co-founder of ROAF, said the foundation is an initiative by siblings of Remi Owolabi-Ariye, who went missing 13 years ago and is yet to be found. 

According to Obasohan, “it is estimated by a BBC report that more than eight million people go missing around the world each year; the situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or befitting funeral resulting when a person goes missing is extremely painful, with long-lasting impact on families and friends as in the case of our beloved Remi Owolabi-Ariye, who went missing in Lagos on April 3, 2009. 

She said the foundation is named after Owolabi-Ariye with the vision of offering initial aid and support in the form of financial, emotional and psychological assistance to the immediate families of missing persons and victims of associated trauma and distress in Nigeria. 

Yemi Adenuga, chairman of the foundation, mentioned that the foundation will also guide, liaise and assist the immediate families of missing persons on how to productively engage the law enforcement agencies to publicize, enquire, investigate and procure useful information towards the possible whereabouts or discovery of missing persons in Nigeria. 

“We are doing this in the hope that no family will experience what the Remi Owolabi-Ariye’s family did,” she added. 

The launch will be held at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja in August, 2022.