Three Children Gone: A Father’s Agony, A Family’s Unanswered Questions

The deaths of three siblings at a farm in Owena Cantonment, Akure, the Ondo State capital, have left their father grieving and seeking answers. DAMILOLA ORIGBEMISUYI examines the tragedy and the unanswered questions surrounding it.

There are tragedies that leave a family grieving, and there are those that also leave behind questions that grief alone cannot answer. For the Jonah family in Akure, Ondo State, the death of three children in circumstances their father struggles to understand has brought both.

What began as another familiar trip to the farm ended with a father searching desperately for his children and eventually standing beside their lifeless bodies near a small river. Joshua Jonah, 11, his twin brother Jacob, also 11, and their five-year-old sister, Blessing, would never return home from the farm they had visited countless times with their parents.

For Samuel Jonah, their father, the place had never been associated with danger. Since arriving in Akure from Benue State in 2003, he had worked as a farmer around the Owena Army Barracks. Even after civilians were asked to leave the barracks in 2018, he retained his farm there and continued working in the area. Over the years, his children became familiar companions on his trips to the farm.

He married in 2014, at age 26, and the following year, his wife gave birth to Joshua and Jacob. In 2021, Blessing joined the family. The three children, according to their father, grew up knowing the farm as part of their everyday lives. They went there with their parents, worked around the farm and returned home without incident.

That sense of familiarity was shattered on Friday, September 4. The family had gone to the farm again, with the children helping to cut groundnuts. At about noon, Samuel left the children there while he went into town to collect his salary from his work as a security worker. He returned around 3 pm and later told the children that he and their mother would be going home. They could continue playing around the farm, he said, but should return home by 6 pm.

Six o’clock came, but Joshua, Jacob and Blessing did not return home. At first, Samuel expected that they would return later. By 8 pm, however, anxiety had replaced expectation. He checked around the house but could not find them. The thought that something might have gone wrong became impossible to ignore.

He mounted his motorcycle and headed back towards the farm, despite the darkness and the fact that it had no lights. His wife accompanied him with a torch. At the first gate, he encountered a Military Police officer whom he informed that his three children had gone to the farm but had not returned.

He was advised to report the matter to the MP’s office and to the police. But by the time he reached a police post along the road, he said it had already closed. With no immediate breakthrough, the family waited for daylight.

Saturday brought no relief. Samuel and his wife first went to their church, hoping that perhaps the children had gone to stay with someone they knew. They searched around the church and contacted their pastor. But the children were not there.

He narrated, “On Saturday morning, my wife and I left home and went to our church, thinking that the children might have gone to stay with one of the church members. However, when we got there, the members told us they had not seen them.

“I checked around the church myself, but they were nowhere to be found. I then called my pastor and told him that something terrible had happened and that we should pray because I could not find my children.”

“After that, I went to the police station to report the matter. The police told me to continue searching and said that they could only publicise the case after 24 hours had passed.

“I decided to continue praying and asking God for help. While I was in prayer, a soldier called me from the barracks and asked me to come immediately. He told me that they had found where my children were,” he added.

Samuel rushed from the prayer ground to the barracks. Near a small stream close to his farm, military officers held him back briefly and questioned him about whether he had a disagreement with anyone. He said he told them that he had no problem with anybody. Then he was told that his three children had died from drowning. The discovery was devastating enough.

But what Samuel said he saw when he uncovered their bodies has continued to trouble him.

The bodies had been covered with leaves. He removed the leaves himself and said he noticed what appeared to be blood around the ears and from the body of his youngest child. To him, the condition of the bodies did not look like what he expected from drowning.

“After the questioning, one of the officers informed me that my children had died in the water. I was shocked and asked them how it was possible for my three children to die in the water at the same time.

”When I eventually got to where they were, their bodies had been covered with leaves. I do not think they died by drowning. Something must have happened to them,” he cried.

Samuel’s suspicion, however, remains just a suspicion. He did not see anyone with the children and could not identify any person responsible for their deaths. He mentioned the possibility of bandits or other people being involved, but acknowledged that he had no evidence against anyone.

He continued, “When I touched their bodies, they did not look to me like people who had died by drowning. There was no water in their stomachs, and their bodies were not very wet.

“From what I saw, I do not believe they died by drowning. Something must have happened to them, which is why I suspect bandits or others may have been involved.

“There are neighbours around the farm, and some of them are soldiers, but we do not have any proof against anyone yet. I cannot accuse anybody without evidence because I did not see who might have been responsible for what happened to my children.”

That uncertainty is perhaps what makes the family’s grief even more difficult.

However, the Ondo State Police Command has not attributed the deaths to drowning, banditry or foul play. Instead, it has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the children’s deaths.

The Commissioner of Police, Felix Ohagwu, has directed that all available facts be documented and the circumstances leading to the deaths established. The command also commiserated with the family and urged parents and guardians to exercise greater vigilance around rivers, streams, ponds and other bodies of water.

But while the investigation continues, memories of another tragedy have resurfaced within the barracks community.

The deceased father recalled that in 2020, another child was allegedly found dead around the barracks farm, with one arm cut off. His account has not been presented as evidence linking that incident to the latest deaths, but the memory has deepened the fears surrounding the area.

When contacted, the Army Public Relations Officer of the Owena Cantonment, Prince Omale, confirmed that the deaths occurred within the cantonment, saying investigations were already underway by the Army and the Nigeria Police to unravel the circumstances surrounding the mysterious deaths.

Omale said the authority was committed to getting to the truth and urged the bereaved family to assist the ongoing investigation by providing any information that could help establish what happened. He described the incident as unfortunate and dismissed any suggestion that farms within the cantonment were generally unsafe.

“Yes, it happened in the cantonment, and investigations are currently underway by the authorities in collaboration with the Nigerian Police to unravel the circumstances surrounding the mysterious deaths. It is quite unfortunate, but if the father suspects foul play, I would not say he is right or wrong at this stage. The authorities are investigating the incident, and he can assist by providing any information that may help uncover the truth. Farms are safe within the cantonment, and no right-thinking person would be happy about such a tragic incident,” he said.

However, for Samuel, the demand is not about revenge. It is about understanding how he lost the three children who meant everything to him.

He said he lacked the financial capacity to pursue a case against military authorities and did not want to make accusations without proof. His greatest wish, he said, was simply to bury his children and leave the rest in God’s hands. “I only wanted to bury my children,” he said.

But beneath those words lies a father’s unanswered question: what happened to his children between the moment he left them at the farm and the time their bodies were discovered?

Were they victims of an accident? Did they enter the water and drown? Did another circumstance lead to their deaths? Were there witnesses who saw what happened? What evidence can establish the final moments of Joshua, Jacob and Blessing? For now, those questions remain unanswered.

Samuel says he has left the matter in God’s hands. But he has also made a simple appeal: if there is more to the deaths of his children, let the truth be uncovered.

Until investigators establish what happened at the Owena farm on that September day, the Jonah family’s tragedy will remain more than a story of three young lives lost. It will remain a story of a grieving father, a family searching for answers and three children whose final moments are still shrouded in uncertainty.