Benin Stowaway Boy Recounts Ordeal 4 Years After

It was on Saturday, August 24, 2013, that 13-year-old Daniel Ohikhena, from Owan, Edo State, stowed from Benin Airport to Lagos in the wheel well of Arik flight W3 544. When the flight landed at the Lagos Airport, security agents and passengers aboard the flight were shocked to see the boy creeping out of one of the wheels of the aircraft. The security agents and passengers thought he was a ghost until they found that the boy stowed to Lagos. Daniel told journalists then that he thought the flight was going to America as he wanted to travel outside Nigeria.

The innocent but silly idea of this child however gave him the opportunity of getting his education sponsored by the then Governor of Edo State Adams Oshiomhole . Daniel was adopted by the governor, as his parents were separated and was from a very poor home.

He is 16 years old now and in SS 1 in  Edo College, Benin-City.   Newsmen  ran  into Daniel, last week, where he was assisting his mother, who is into petty trading, at the Oba market. He is  taller now and more mature. Luckily for Daniel, the incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki  continued,  sponsoring his education  and other children popularly referred  to  as Oshiomhole’s children. That can be said to be one of the positive aspects  of continuity in government.