SSS Grills Teenage Stowaway’s Mum

A teenage boy, Daniel Ihekina, who hid in the tyre hole of Arik Air flying from Benin to Lagos. Pix 2: The boy being led away by security agents.

The mother of the 13-year-old stowaway, Ricky Daniel Ohikhena, who on Friday hid in the tyre compartment of an Arik plane on a flight from Benin to Lagos, was on Monday quizzed for hours by a combined team of security operatives from the Department of State Security Service and aviation security.

The mother, Evelyn, who confirmed that she was quizzed by the SSS operatives, said her son was a nice boy who never displayed any tendency for such a dangerous venture.

An embattled Evelyn said Daniel was a nice boy who did not mingle with bad friends.

Evelyn Ohikhena

She said, “My son answers Daniel in school and Ricky at home. I went to my elder sister’s place who put to bed and when I got home the next morning (Saturday), I couldn’t find him. My daughter told me that they quarrelled in the night because he woke at midnight to watch movies and she told him to stop watching movie in the night and she said he eventually slept in the parlour while she said she went back to sleep in the room.

“One of his younger brothers said he saw him remove all his school books from his bag; so I asked my neighbours whether any of them saw him and they told me that at around 5 to 6 am, they heard sounds that somebody was opening the gate but never thought it was my son. He doesn’t go out. What I know is that he is always watching films in the house but he doesn’t have friends.

“I went to Oba Market police station, they referred me to Evbuotubu police station, when I got there they said they will declare him missing after 24 hours and that I should come back the next day.”

Speaking on the type of person her son is, Evelyn said, “He is always at home, I have never seen anybody come to look for him and he doesn’t have friends. I am begging the government to help me, because I have never been to the airport before, I have been to Lagos before so they should help me. I don’t know how he manage to get there but I just thank God that he is alive.

August 27, 2013