Segun Atanda/
Every night since August 6, 2025, Maria Oseghale has lived with the same unanswered question: where is her daughter, Dorcas? The 21-year-old 300-level Chemistry student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, left her hostel that evening to buy food near the Students’ Village along Ede Road. She never returned.
For more than three months, her disappearance has remained a mystery, plunging her family into ongoing grief and uncertainty.
Dorcas, who lived at Adesanmi House on Ibadan Road, reportedly told a roommate she would be back shortly. When hours passed without her return, calls were placed to her two mobile lines, but both were switched off and have remained unreachable ever since.
Friends searched the surrounding area that night, moving from food stalls to roadside shops and footpaths, but found no trace of her.
For her mother in Lagos, the pain is made heavier by the fact that Dorcas is her only child.
In emotional interviews and now-circulating video clips, Maria has spoken of the silence that descended on her life after that evening.
She says she has followed every possible lead, visited police stations, spoken to security agents and appealed to anyone who might have seen her daughter. Each day begins with hope and ends with crushing disappointment.
Following reports by students and viral social media appeals, the management of Obafemi Awolowo University confirmed that the case was reported to the Osun State Police Command.
University security, student volunteers and police officers carried out searches within and around the Students’ Village and adjoining routes.
Despite these efforts, no official breakthrough has been announced, and investigators have not publicly identified any suspects.
The disappearance has unsettled the campus and surrounding communities. Many students now avoid moving around at night, while parents have expressed growing fears about safety.
The OAU Students’ Union has continued to push for enhanced security measures and better lighting around student areas, as anxiety deepens with each passing week without answers.
Maria’s appeal, however, remains simple and desperate. She asks anyone who saw Dorcas on the evening of August 6 or who has any information no matter how small, to come forward. She says she only wants her daughter back, alive, so that her home, now filled with silence, can once again know peace.
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