UPDATE: Stowaway Daniel has fulfilled his dream, says sister’… Bags Scholarship

There is a new tourists’ site in Benin City –– a storey building at Ehiegba Street, off Goodwill, off Ekenwan Road, in the Edo State capital. It is the home of 13-year-old stowaway Daniel Oikhena. It has been hosting visitors since Saturday, 24th August 2013.

Reporters, security agents and traders are leading other visitors to House Number 7 –– about 500 metres from the Benin Airport runway. The INFO EXTRA visited the house on 27th August 2013 and met two of Daniel’s younger brothers and some relatives, who said they would not want to comment on the incident.

His eldest sister, Tonia, described Daniel as a reserved boy, gentle and intelligent. The stowaway-boy, who is a junior secondary school two pupil of Asoro Grammar School, Benin, was said to have woken up around 3.30am that day and watched an American film, which led to a disagreement between him and his eldest sister.

Tonia said: “Oga journalist, absence of a perimeter fencing at the Benin Airport enabled Daniel to gain entry to the airport. If the airport is properly fenced, I don’t think he can enter the place. “You see, any time we discuss with Daniel, what he always says is that one day he will surprise us. He loves watching American films. He doesn’t like Nigerian movies.

“Daniel is a quiet person. He has no friends, even in his school. He likes to do things in his own way. He confided in his younger brothers, telling them that one day, he would travel on a plane. That was why one of them told our mother to go and look for him at the airport.

“His younger brothers also informed our mother that Daniel told them that one day, he would make our family name to become popular. Thank God he is alive to tell the story himself.”



De Raufs, an Osun State volunteer group has offered a scholarship to 15year old stowaway teenager, Daniel Ohikhena who sensationally hid in the tyre compartment of Arik air flight from Benin to Lagos.

According to Osun Defenders, a statement signed by the Director General of the group, Comrade Amitolu Shittu, the group stated that it is ready to give scholarship to Daniel up to university level and help him realise his dream of travelling by air legitimately.

“We are sincerely willing to offer him the scholarship in other to encourage thousands of teenagers who are genius and ambitious, the leaders in Nigeria fail on their part to see the potential of the little boy ,therefore De Raufs take up the responsibility to safe the future of this great boy and not turning him to criminal.

“The parents of the boy should contact the secretariat of our group for further briefing,” the group stated.