Widow Sues Ondo Over Son’s Disappearance From Juvenile Home

Mrs Opeyemi Adegboyega, a Nigerian widow, has sued the Ondo State Government.

She dragged the state government before the state high court over the alleged disappearance of her child, Oluwaseun Omoniyi, in the custody of the Ondo State Juvenile Home, Akure.

Also joined in the suit are the state Commissioner for Women Affairs and the state Attorney-General.

The claimant, who lost her husband some months ago, said the victim was admitted into the juvenile home in 2017 when he was three months old while she was in a hospital receiving treatment.

She said the juvenile home offered to take custody of her three children to enable her to follow up on her treatment, but she and her mother agreed to leave only Omoniyi in the home.

Upon her full recovery a month later, she said she went back to the juvenile home with her mother to demand her baby boy, but she was told that her child had died and the corpse had been deposited at the mortuary of the Ondo State Specialist Hospital.

According to her, on getting to the state hospital, she was told that the hospital did not receive any corpse of a child from the juvenile home at that period and all petitions on the matter to the state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Department of State Services, had 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 the boy whose disappearance occurred while in the custody of the juvenile home under the supervision of the state Ministry of Women Affairs.

She also sought an order of the court to direct the defendants to pay her N50m as “exemplary and aggravated damages,” N40m as general damages for the excruciating pain, anguish, personal loss, and psychological trauma caused by the negligent act of the defendants, as well as N5m damages as “cost of this action.”

The claimant also sought a court order that 15per cent interest per annum be paid on the judgment sum from the date of the judgment until the judgment sum is finally liquidated.