How my 22-year-old brother went missing after early-morning Bolt ride — Sibling

Jeremiah Olusola, the elder brother of a missing 400-level undergraduate of the University of Lagos, James Olusola, shares with AYOOLA OLASUPO how his brother’s sudden disappearance became a misery, the family’s desperate search, and their hope to reunite with him....READ ORIGINAL & FULL CONTENT FROM SOURCE |

What is your relationship with the missing James Olusola?

I’m the elder brother of the missing person, James Olusola. I’m an architect and I’m 27 years old. We were at home together in Ondo State in March before he later left for school. So, my brother left Ondo State, where we live now, for school. He is a 400-level student studying Computer Science at the University of Lagos.

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Are you from Ondo State?

No, I’m from Ekiti State.

How old is James?

He will be 22 years old by November 2025.

Can you describe James’ physical appearance?

He’s about six feet tall. He uses prescription glasses and has a full head of hair. He is also a slim guy, and his dress style is always casual.

Does he have any medical issue that you’re aware of?

No, he doesn’t have any medical issue at all. His health is perfectly fine.

Did you notice whether he developed any strange behaviour lately before he went missing?

Well, the last time we met, there was nothing strange about his behaviour or him. We stayed together from January to March, and all the time, we stayed close, but I didn’t notice anything strange in him.

Can you remember some of the things he often spoke about when you were together?

He talked about football, music, and basketball as well. Those are the things that he likes because he loves sports and does tech, too. He also writes computer programmes for people.

Since when have you been looking for him?

We’ve been looking for him since Friday, 9 May 2025. That was when his number stopped being reachable. The last time I spoke to him on the phone was on Wednesday, 7 May 2025. But my sister called him on the 9th of May. I think he was active online in the early morning of 9 May, and after that, he hasn’t been online since then.

Since we were not in Lagos, we tried to reach him on the phone that day, but his number was not going through. So, I had to go to Lagos on Saturday, and the following day, throughout that day, his number remained unreachable. I just thought I should go and see what was going on with him at the school, so I went to his hostel on campus, named Biobaku Hostel.

Did you find anything in his hostel?

We went to the hostel. I alerted the hostel porters first, then they directed the matter to the Alpha Base security, which is the security agency of UNILAG. We reported the incident and told them that we had been trying to get in touch with our brother. They directed us to the security base of the school. We went there that same night on Saturday, and from there, they gave us a letter to the Sabo Police Station.

What transpired at the police station?

At the police station, they took my statement and everything that I could remember, and they promised to investigate and find out where the whereabouts of the boy could be.

Have they reached out to you since then?

Yes, I go there almost every day, but the case has been transferred from Sabo Police Station to the state CID in Panti, and they are the ones handling the case presently. We did phone tracking, but we did not get any reasonable information that could help us.

We found out that his email address was logged onto my sister’s phone. So, while we were checking to see if we could find a lead to where he could have gone, we found out that he ordered a Bolt driver from UNILAG on that Friday morning around 6:40 a.m. to Idumota.

The police did their investigation, brought the Bolt driver, and questioned him. He then took us to where he had picked him up earlier and where he had dropped him off. I mean the take-off and the drop-off points, yet we couldn’t find any useful information that could help us.

But the Bolt driver mentioned that my brother had made a call while in the car, which suggested that he was probably going to meet someone somewhere, but that detail did not show in the phone tracking that we did earlier.

He likely made the call on his WhatsApp because that was where he used to make most of his calls, so that is where we are currently with the police. I can’t get all the details from WhatsApp to see how we can get the number at least to see when he called, who he called, and the number that called him that particular day.

How much did you pay for the phone tracking?

We paid about N130,000. The police connected us with someone who they said knew a guy who used to do phone tracking, but the money was sent directly to the person who did the tracking.

Have you contacted some of his friends about his whereabouts?

Yes, we called some of his friends that we met to get an insight into where he could have gone to, but none of them were able to give us any useful information concerning that.

What were they saying?

They said they didn’t know where he could have gone. Meanwhile, he’s currently doing his Industrial Training at AIICO Insurance in Ilupeju. We traced him there too, and his boss confirmed that he came to work on Thursday, and was supposed to come to work on Friday, the next day, but he went missing that day. I think that was the moment he took that ride to somewhere we had not figured out yet.

Did you suspect whether he was kidnapped or not?

I don’t even know what to think anymore. At first, it was looking like a kidnap case, or maybe he was set up by some people because he ordered the Bolt on his own. Nobody could have done it on his behalf. The car picked him up from his destination and ended the trip, according to the Bolt driver.

So, we went to the Bolt office to confirm all the movements of the Bolt driver. We confirmed directly that the trip started, and he was dropped off at his destination, but we did not know exactly where he went. We do not know the person he was going to meet, or maybe he got lost in the process, or something happened to him.

The Bolt driver confirmed to us that he was dressed casually on that Friday morning, and that it didn’t look like he was going to the office, even though he was supposed to. If he was, he was supposed to be in a corporate outfit and shoes.

Does he have any girlfriend you know about?

I’m not sure about that, but there were two female friends that he used to talk to regularly. We’ve also called them in for questioning, and we learnt that he was even talking to one of them on Thursday night, but he didn’t mention where he was going the next day to the lady.

How has your family been coping with James’ disappearance?

His disappearance has really affected my parents, especially my mum, since it’s almost a month now that we’ve been looking for him. She was very much concerned, and my dad was just trying to help. On the first night, she was worried and very concerned about what James could be going through, and what could have happened.

Has the school management raised any concerns about James’ disappearance?

They are not saying anything. A few days ago, someone called to ask about the police investigation. That was the only thing we heard from them.

Can you remember any of his last social media posts?

We’ve also checked his recent posts on social media. On his Snapchat page, he posted himself on Thursday, before he went missing. He took a picture, like a selfie or a mirror picture, while he was at work, and uploaded it on Snapchat, while on his Twitter (X) page, he only posted about football, and there was nothing really personal there.

What would you want people to know about your brother and what he means to you?

All they need to know is that if anyone has seen anything or can give us a clue to where he could have gone, they should please tell us. Possibly, he got lost somewhere. He uses glasses and may not be wearing them because we don’t know what condition he’s in at the moment. He’s usually a calm guy and doesn’t have many friends either.

What message would you give him if he could hear you right now?

I just want to tell him that we all love him. All of us in the family miss him, and we just want him to come back home. We want to see him back, no matter what is happening, and that is the most important thing to us now.

That is what I’m after now. On that Friday morning, when he sent a message to my sister, he only wrote, “Hey sis, I love you.” And that was the last message he sent to her around 7:04 a.m.

Was there a conversation before that last message?

A day before the incident happened, she sent him some money to get some things for himself. The money was for him to buy some clothes, shoes, and corporate wear because most of his clothes were casual wear, so the money was sent so that he could get the clothes to where he is having his Industrial Training.

Are you satisfied with the way the case is being handled by the police?

Well, I am not entirely satisfied, especially as the case is regarding a human life and not just some property. Again, given the fact that it has been four weeks already and we have not got any useful clue concerning my brother’s whereabouts and what could have happened to him, I am not satisfied.

Do you think there are delays or missteps early in the investigation that may have affected progress?

Honestly, there were several delays and missteps. For example, the case was reported on Saturday night, and nothing was done until Monday. Even on Monday, when we started the tracking of his phone, it took longer than necessary; about four days before we got any result on the tracking at all.

In addition, the result of the tracking even took more time before it was acted upon, and that also led to nowhere. This took two weeks before the case got transferred to the State CID, Panti Station, from Sabo Police Station for a better investigation.

Did your brother make any new online friends or connections you didn’t know about at the time?

I don’t know of any new friend or connection he could have made recently.

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