An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure has ordered the Ondo State Government and the 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 approached the court after her three-month-old son, Omoniyi Oluwaseun, allegedly went missing in 2017 while he was under the care of the state Juvenile Home, where he was placed as she underwent treatment for depression and schizophrenia at the Ondo State Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital.
According to court filings, the child was taken into the custody of the Ministry of Women Affairs to enable the mother receive medical treatment. However, about a month later, officials reportedly informed her that the baby had died and that his remains had been deposited in a mortuary.
Adegboyega, however, was said to have visited the State Specialist Hospital to verify the claim but was allegedly told that no corpse matching the child’s description had been deposited at the morgue by officials of the ministry.
Dissatisfied with the explanation, she instituted legal action through her counsel, Mr. Oju Kekemeke, seeking redress over the circumstances surrounding the child’s disappearance.
In his judgment, Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay described the evidence presented by the defendants as “unbelievable, unconscionable, unsubstantiated, untrue and untenable.”
The judge held 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 position.
Justice Osadebay ruled that the disappearance of Omoniyi Oluwaseun from the Ondo State Juvenile Home under the supervision of the Ministry of Women Affairs was due to 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.
The court consequently awarded N10 million as exemplary and aggravated damages, N15 million as general damages for emotional and psychological trauma, and N200,000 as cost of action.
Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the claimant, Mr. Oju Kekemeke, described the ruling as courageous and humane, saying it reinforces accountability and the sanctity of life. He also called on security agencies to make public the outcome of investigations into the child’s disappearance, which remains unresolved.
