A human rights lawyer, Mr. Tope Temokun, has petitioned Gov. Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State, alleging forceful custody and unlawful detention of a 16-year-old girl (name withheld).
Temokun also copied in the petition the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Commissioner of Police, and Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the state.
The lawyer, who wrote on behalf of the parents of the girl, Mr. Dele and Labake Wilky, accused an official of the state children’s home known as Motherless Babies Home, Oba-Ile, of forcefully keeping the girl without her parents’ consent.
According to him, withholding the girl in the motherless home is illegal and unlawful without any justifiable reason.
The lawyer also alleged that the parents of the girl suffered abuse and physical assault during an encounter with the NSCDC official and official of the motherless home.
“In their complaint, which was filed through their legal counsel Tope Temokun, the parents described a sequence of events that began with the official of the motherless home visiting Racheal at her point-of-sale (POS) business station near their home.
“Following disciplinary action by her parents due to repeated financial losses from the business, the girl reportedly left home on Oct. 30 and returned late that evening.
“The following day, the official accompanied by the official of NSCDC allegedly appeared at the family’s home and insisted that she accompanied them to the Ondo State Children’s Home,” Temokun said.
He said, upon their arrival at the facility, the motherless home official allegedly informed the parents that their daughter would remain at the home without any further explanation or legal justification.
According to the petition, on Oct. 31, during a visit to the children’s home to demand for her daughter release, Labake was allegedly told by the official that her daughter was no longer in the facility.
Temokun said that the situation made the already tense and restless mother broke down in tears, saying she would not leave there if they did not produce her daughter thus leading to her being beaten.
“In order to have the evidence of the beating of his wife, Mr. Willky used his phone to record the assault on his wife.
“They also assaulted him too and tore his clothes, all inside the premises of the Ondo State Children’s Home Oba-Ile; Photographs of the assault meted out on our client are annexed as Annexures,” he alleged.
According to the petition , the girl in question is neither indigent nor motherless.
The lawyer’s petition requested that the state governor should order an immediate investigation into the conduct of both officials, as well as the practices at the Ondo State Children’s Home.
“There should be impartial investigation into the extra-legal taking into custody and unlawful harbouring of a secondary school leaver of 16 years and 4 months of age into a motherless babies’ home, a girl who is neither motherless nor fatherless nor indigent;
“The parents also request for the immediate release of their daughter from the Ondo State Children’s Home to her parents.
“We entertain a reasonable apprehension that if resolute action is not taken, and things like these are allowed to flourish and be swept under the carpet, a crisis that may escalate and bespatter the good image of the state with a paint-brush of shame is already afoot,” Temokun added.( NAN)
