A middle-aged widow, Mrs Opeyemi Adegboyega, has dragged the Ondo state government before the Akure High Court over the alleged disappearance of her three-month-old child, Oluwaseun Omoniyi, who was in the custody of the State Juvenile Home.
Adegboyega also joined the state Commissioner for Women Affairs and the state Attorney General of Ondo State in the suit, demanding the whereabouts of her three-month-old boy.
According to the claimant, who explained that she lost her husband a few months ago, said the three months old was admitted into the juvenile home in 2017 when she was sick and was admitted to the hospital to receive treatment
She said her three children were billed to be kept in the juvenile home while the home offered to admit the three children, but her mother offered to take care of the two older children while the three months were left in the care of the home.
She said further the youngest of her children was in the home for a month before she was discharged from the hospital and returned home but said, to her surprise, the baby was nowhere to be found, saying the home told her that the boy had died and her remains had been deposited at the morgue in the Ondo State Specialist Hospital.
She, however, said on getting to the state hospital, she was told that the hospital did not receive any corpse of a child from the Ondo State Juvenile Home at that period.
She said she subsequently petitioned the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, but said all the petitions on the matter to the state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Department of State Services yielded no result.
Adegboyega, who filed the suit through her lawyer, Mr Oju Kekemeke, sought an order of the court directing the defendants to account for the whereabouts of Omoniyi Oluwaseun, whose disappearance occurred while in the custody of the Ondo State Juvenile Home under the supervision of the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs.
She also sought an order from the court to direct the defendants to pay her a sum of N50 million as “exemplary and aggravated damages”, N40million as general damages for the excruciating pain, anguish, personal loss, and psychological trauma caused by the negligent act of the defendants, as well as N5.million damages as “cost of this action.”
The claimant also sought a court order that 15 per cent interest per annum be paid on the judgment sum from the date of the judgment until the judgment sum is finally liquidated.
After filing the suit, Adegboyega’s lawyer, Kekemeke, vowed that the matter would be pursued until her client got justice and said, “It is unfortunate that the system took advantage of Opeyemi Adegboyega’s medical condition at the time. Therefore, the system will be held accountable for this flagrant breach of public duty.”
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