An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital, presided by Justice Oluyemi Osadebay has ordered the state government to pay N25 million in damages to Mrs Opeyemi Adegboyega over the disappearance of her child from a state-owned juvenile home.
Justice Oluyemi Osadebay, held that the totality of the evidence presented by the defendants (the government) was “unbelievable, unconscionable, unsubstantiated, untrue and untenable.”
Adegboyega had sued the Ondo State Government over the disappearance of her infant son from the custody of one of the state’s juvenile homes in Akure, which is under the supervision of the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
The claimant, who was receiving treatment for depression and schizophrenia at the Ondo State Neuropsychiatric Hospital, had her three-month-old son taken into the custody of the Ministry of Women Affairs to enable her to undergo proper treatment as an outpatient.
After one month of treatment, Adegboyega was discharged from the hospital and went to the Ondo State Juvenile Home to retrieve her child. She was informed that the baby had died and that the body had been deposited at the hospital mortuary.
It was gathered that she subsequently visited the State Specialist Hospital, where she was informed that no child’s body had been deposited at the mortuary by officials of the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
Dissatisfied with the explanation, the claimant, through her lawyer, Oju Kekemeke, approached the High Court to challenge the development, with the Ondo State Government and the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs named as defendants in the suit.
In the judgment, the court held that the disappearance of Omoniyi Oluwaseun (the claimant’s child) from the custody of the Ondo State Juvenile Home under the supervision of the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs was caused by the negligent act 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 said.
The judgment further read: “An order that the sum of N10 million be paid by the defendants to the claimant as exemplary and aggravated damages. An order that the sum of N15 million be paid by the defendants to the claimant as general damages for the excruciating pain, anguish, personal loss, psychological trauma and persistent shock suffered by the claimant and caused by the negligent act of the defendants.
“This court hereby grants an order that the sum of N200,000 be paid by the defendants to the claimant as costs of this action.”
Source: The Punch online
