An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure has ordered the state government and its Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to pay N25 million in damages to one Mrs Opeyemi Adegboyega, over the disappearance of her infant son while in the custody of a government-run juvenile home.
The claimant had sued the state government after her three-month-old son, Omoniyi Oluwaseun, allegedly went missing in 2017 while under the care of the state Juvenile Home, where he was placed as she underwent treatment for depression and schizophrenia at the state Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital.
According to the claimant, the child was taken into the custody of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to enable her to receive proper medical care.
However, after she was discharged about a month later, officials reportedly informed her that the baby had died and that his remains had been deposited at a mortuary.
Adegboyega was said to have visited the State Specialist Hospital to verify the claim, but was allegedly informed that no corpse matching the description had been deposited at the facility’s morgue by officials of the ministry.
Dissatisfied with the explanation, she approached the court through her counsel, Mr Oju Kekemeke, seeking redress over the circumstances surrounding the child’s disappearance.
In the judgment delivered by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay, the court held that the evidence presented by the defendants was unbelievable, unconscionable, unsubstantiated, untrue and untenable.”
The judge noted that there was no credible documentation showing that the child died, suffered any injury or was properly accounted for while in government custody. The court also faulted the absence of medical, mortuary and burial records to support the government’s claim.
Justice Osadebay held that the disappearance of Omoniyi Oluwaseun from the Ondo State Juvenile Home under the supervision of the Ministry of Women Affairs was caused by the negligent acts of the defendants.
”This court hereby declares that the claimant has suffered excruciating pain, anguish, personal loss and psychological trauma as a result of the disappearance of Omoniyi Oluwaseun from the Ondo State Juvenile Home under the supervision of the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs,” the court ruled.
Consequently, the court awarded N10 million as exemplary and aggravated damages, N15 million as general damages for the emotional and psychological trauma suffered by the claimant, and N200,000 as the cost of the action.
Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the claimant, Mr Kekemeke, described the verdict as courageous and humane, saying it reinforced accountability and the sanctity of life.
