For six weeks, the family of retired Police Superintendent Ahmed Shehu Emmanuel has been left with questions, fear and an agonising wait for a phone call that may finally tell them where he is.

The retired police officer walked out of his home in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on July 23, 2026, intending to meet a cattle herder over the sale of two cows.
He never returned.

Since that day, his family has searched for answers, contacted security agencies and provided information that could assist the investigation. But despite it efforts, there has been no reliable information about his whereabouts.

Now, with the silence stretching into a seventh week, the family is appealing to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tunji Disu, the Ogun State Government and other security agencies to urgently intensify the search for the retired officer.

Emmanuel’s disappearance began with what appeared to be an ordinary arrangement.

According to his son, Emmanuel Samson, his father had entered into a cattle-rearing arrangement with a Fulani herder, Muhammed Saleh, who lives around the Ojere/Jere Road axis of Abeokuta.

Samson said his father had approached Saleh around the Eid-el-Kabir period to arrange the sale of two cows to raise money for the celebration.

Saleh reportedly advised him to wait until the appropriate time before the animals were sold.

That time, the family believed, came on July 23.

Samson said Saleh called Emmanuel that day and asked him to meet him at Rounda Roundabout, along Ayetoro Road, from where they were expected to proceed to Alamut Market to sell the cows.

Before leaving home, Emmanuel reportedly informed his wife, Mrs Mary Emmanuel, about the call and the plan.

He then mounted his motorcycle and left to meet Saleh.

According to the family, the two men were later seen together on a motorcycle.

Samson said police officers manning a checkpoint around Rounda also reportedly confirmed seeing Emmanuel and Saleh together, although they could not establish where the men were heading.

It was the last time the family had any confirmed sighting of the retired officer.

When Emmanuel did not return home and could no longer be reached by telephone, anxiety quickly turned to alarm.

Then came another troubling development: efforts to locate Saleh also proved unsuccessful.

Emmanuel’s motorcycle has not been recovered, leaving the family increasingly worried that something serious may have happened to him.

The family has not ruled out the possibility of kidnapping, although it said it was leaving the investigation to the security agencies.

Samson said Saleh was introduced to his father by another Fulani herder identified as Sule, who reportedly lives around the same Ojere/Jere Road axis.

The family said it had reported the disappearance to the Police Anti-Kidnapping Unit, the Department of State Services and the State Criminal Investigation Department in Abeokuta.

It also said telecommunications and device-related information that could help investigators trace Emmanuel had been made available to the authorities.

Yet, according to the family, no concrete information has emerged about what happened to him.

For Samson, the uncertainty has become particularly painful because his father is hypertensive.

“The longer he remains missing, the more worried we become,” the family said, stressing the urgency of locating him and determining his condition.

Another family member, Emmanuel Nehemiah, has now joined the appeal for greater intervention.

Nehemiah urged the Inspector-General of Police, the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, the Police Anti-Kidnapping Unit, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, the DSS, the Ogun State Government and other relevant security and intelligence agencies to urgently review the case.

He appealed to the authorities to deploy every lawful investigative and intelligence resource available to establish what happened to the retired officer and ensure his safe return.

The family is also turning to the public for help.

Nehemiah appealed to anyone who may have information about Emmanuel’s whereabouts, or those of Saleh and Sule, to provide such information to the security agencies.

He said the family decided to make the case public because of the passage of time and the absence of reliable information about Emmanuel’s safety.

For a family that watched a husband and father leave home on an apparently routine mission, the weeks since then have been marked by an unbearable absence.

There has been no return home, no reassuring phone call and, so far, no clear explanation of what happened after Emmanuel left to sell two cows.

The family is now hoping that renewed attention to the case will produce the lead that investigators need, and ultimately, bring the retired police officer back home.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Oluseyi Babaseyi, said the investigation was ongoing.

“Investigations are still ongoing. In due course, verified updates will be shared,” he stated.