A Nigerian man has shared an emotional story about how his nephew, a boy who was kidnapped at the age of 8 in Port Harcourt, found his way back home eight years later after bravely reporting his abductor to the police.
The story, which has gone viral on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), was shared in a series of posts that detailed the shocking ordeal and miraculous reunion.
According to the man, the boy was kidnapped in 2017 by a man identified as Mr. Taye, who worked at the Port Harcourt slaughterhouse.
The child was taken to Ondo State, where his name was changed to Olamide Awofolaju.
“I am the happiest man right now 😭. My nephew who was kidnapped since 2017 from PH and taken to Ondo State by one Mr. Taye just found his way back home. He showed up in PH out of the blues,” he wrote.
He clarified that his nephew was 8 years old when he was taken, although earlier in the post he mistakenly said 6.
The man explained that the child eventually came to understand he had been abducted. As he grew older, he reported the matter to the police and revealed that the man raising him was not his father.
“He said Mr. Taye ran away after someone in Ondo raised an alarm that he was not the boy’s father. The police got involved and requested a DNA test, but he fled when they came to pick him up,” he added.
Despite the emotional reunion, he noted that his nephew now speaks with a Yoruba accent and has lost his ability to speak Igbo, including the Ngwa dialect from his maternal side.
“I don’t want this to be used to promote bigotry or ethnic stereotyping,” he cautioned. “I just found out that he was the one who went to report Taye to the police himself. He hustled, raised ₦30,000 and found his way back home.”
He expressed pride in his nephew, recalling how the boy earned the nickname “Ojukwu” as a child due to his strong and fearless spirit.
In a later update, he shared that the boy had written down the contact numbers of Taye’s wife and sister on a piece of carton and had worked at a car wash in Akure to survive.
“He said his full name is Adetayo Awofolaju. He also changed my nephew’s name to Olamide Awofolaju.”
The story has sparked widespread reaction online, with many Nigerians flooding the comment section to express their shock, sympathy, and relief.
See some reactions below:
@enyola: “Congratulations to you and your family. Don’t sweat about the language, he will ease back into it because he learnt the language cognitively, it’s right under the hood and will be just fine. I hope Taye is caught and dealt with appropriately.”
@Igoma_4: “Kidnapped @8 years return @16 years, and he know his way back perfectly well; there’s more to this.”
@AdaIgbogeneral: “Since 2017? What effort did your family make to locate him? Any Police report of a missing person and poster? Please post them here. If not, just know that it was 1 or 2 of you, his relatives that connived and sold him to a yoruba man. The story is too weak and looks suspicious.”
@Sir_BenBoye: “I am happy for you, but he can’t keep the address in his head and hasn’t tried to leave Taye for the past 8 years and run back. He saw the address somewhere inside Taye’s book or jotter. That info probably made your nephew go to police station to report him..”
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