Mrs Cynthia Ironbar-Akabom, wife of Engr. Bassey Akabom, a staff member of the Cross River State Ministry of Housing’s Mortgage Finance Department, has raised the alarm over her husband’s disappearance.
Akabom’s wife raised the alarm during a telephone conversation with LEADERSHIP at the weekend in Calabar.
Her husband Akabom Bassey went missing on February 21, 2025.
Cynthia, the missing person’s wife, told LEADERSHIP that Engr. Akabom told her in the last telephone conversation that he was being kept at the office by two individuals.
Every effort to locate him has failed; his whereabouts remain unknown. The family has visited his office, the state CID, and the DSS office, but to no avail.
A young man (name withheld), claiming he shared the same cell with Akabom in DSS custody, revealed that Akabom’s health is deteriorating due to poor living conditions.
Another source, as stated in a petition written by the missing person’s family to the Special Adviser to the Cross River State Governor on Intelligence Matters, dated April 28, 2025, alleged that top security agents are holding Akabom without explanation for the offence he committed.
The family, through a letter dated April 28, 2025, has appealed to the state and federal governments to intervene and help locate Akabom.
The staff member of the Department of Mortgage Finance under the Cross River State Ministry of Housing was declared missing by his family since February 21, 2025, after he went to work on that fateful day but never returned home to join his immediate family.
“He left for work on Friday, February 21, 2025. The last time we spoke was around 1pm and he said two persons were keeping him at the office, that once he is done, he will be back home,” Akabom’s wife maintained.
A letter of complaint from the missing person’s family, dated April 28,2025, addressed to the Special Adviser, Intelligence/ State Planning Service Commission, titled Missing Person, urged the state and federal government to wade into the matter so that they locate the whereabouts of their missing family member.
The letter from Obutong/Efangha Offiong Royal House, signed by the family head, Dr. Ekanem Cobham (JP), and wife, Cynthia Ironbar- Bassey, appealed for the government’s help.
Efforts to find out if the missing staff of mortgage finance is truly in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), as alleged in some quarters, failed woefully. Answers from the director of DSS in Cross River State, Mrs Roselyn Izuagbe, during a telephone chat were evasive, as she was unable to say exactly if the missing person was in their custody or not.
“We have too many people working underground on different operations. Maybe you will just give me some time to find out,” Izuagbe said.
