Widow Seeks N95 Million Damages Over Missing Child, Sues Ondo Govt

By Ayodele Oni

A concerned mother and a widow, has demanded for the whereabouts of her son who she kept in the custody of Ondo State Juvenile Home, Akure, dead or alive.

The widow, Mrs Opeyemi Adegboyega, has already filed a suit at the State High Court, Akure, against the Ondo State Government  over the missing child, Oluwaseun Omoniyi , at the custody of the State Juvenile Home, Akure.

Also joined in the suit are the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and the Attorney General of Ondo State.

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.

While in the hospital receiving treatment, her three children, including the victim, the State Juvenile Home offered to take them to enable her concentrate on her treatment, but she and her mother agreed to leave just the victim, three months old at that time and the youngest.

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

At the State Hospital, she was told that there was no record that the hospital received any corpse of a child from the Ondo State 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, is seeking an order of the court directing the defendants to account for the whereabouts of Omoniyi Oluwaseun, whose disappearance occurred while at the custody of the Ondo State Juvenile Home under the supervision of the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs.

She also sought an order of 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, 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 percent 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 untill her client got justice.

He added “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.”