Twelve-year-old Devi Persaud of Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara, has been missing since she left her 74-year-old grandmother’s home on Monday morning.
Her aunt, Aklema Ali, told the News Room during a telephone call on Wednesday, that she wants Devi to know that no matter what the circumstances are, she only wants her to return to her safe and alive.
“All I could say is, ‘Babe, come home I really need you. I don’t want to pick up no parts for you nowhere – just want to see you, I want to talk to you, I just want you to respond to me and say where you are.’ If I have to go far I will go and collect her,” Devi’s distressed aunt told the News Room.
Aklema explained that around 10:00 hrs, Devi left her grandmother’s home, where she lived. She said Devi’s mother had diabetes and died when Devi was four. Since then, she has been living with her grandmother and Aklema looks after her. Her destination on Monday was Aklema’s home, some four minutes away, but the girl never showed up that morning.
Upon being alerted that the girl left home but never arrived at Aklema’s house, Devi’s family made a report to the Wales Police Station.
“Most of the time she does come with my mother or sometimes she does walk and come by me but when she’s going home back my husband or my brother or me, does take her home. She tell my mother she coming by me Monday and unto now she didn’t reach,” Aklema said.
She said that it is unlike Devi to wander off and further explained that Devi was waiting to enter her new school after being placed at Patentia Secondary after the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) exams. However, she said the girl’s father lives in Enmore and she indicated she wanted to visit her father on Monday.
But the father dissuaded her from doing so.
He promised to make arrangements for her to visit later on but his calls to her phone have since gone unanswered. Her older sister, who lives in Mahaicony, was also contacted and has said Devi did not make contact with her.
She also said Devi was very close with her which is why her disappearance has left her very stressed and frustrated.
“When I sit down and I talk to her she does listen to me…I have a very close bond with her because if anything bothers her she does call me.
“What I assume is she was coming by me and I don’t know what game play out…something out of the line. That’s what I can’t figure what gone wrong because she left my mother’s home good,” she said.
