Ondo Court Orders Government to Pay N25 Million After Baby Vanishes From State Juvenile Home
An Ondo State High Court in Akure has ordered the Ondo State Government and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to pay N25 million in damages to Mrs. Opeyemi Adegboyega, whose three-month-old son disappeared while in the care of a government-run juvenile home in 2017. Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay delivered the ruling, finding the state government directly accountable for the disappearance of the infant, Omoniyi Oluwaseun, and for the failure to provide any credible account of what became of him. The facts of this case, as established by the court, are worth laying out carefully because each detail adds to the picture of how a vulnerable woman and her child fell through the cracks of a system that was supposed to protect them both. Mrs. Adegboyega was admitted to the Ondo State Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital for treatment of schizophrenia and depression. While she was receiving inpatient care, her three-month-old son was placed in the custody of the Ministry of Women Af...
