Curious adoption
For 10 year-old Faith (surname unknown), who lived with her alleged adoptive parents, one Paul Onyeama and Adline Ogbonna in the Igando area of Lagos, her name seems to have
- The case of couple who abused a 10-year-old girl to death deserves thorough investigation. Many questions to answer
For 10 year-old Faith (surname unknown), who lived with her alleged adoptive parents, one Paul Onyeama and Adline Ogbonna in the Igando area of Lagos, her name seems to have been at opposing sides with her fate. She has been allegedly beaten to death by her so-called adoptive parents.
Reports from residents around the Jemesi Papa Street where they lived indicate the poor little child had lived under very difficult circumstances. She was allegedly beaten very often and subjected to various acts of child abuse, which possibly led to an illness which never deterred her adoptive parents from still physically abusing her.
We are concerned that a 10 year-old has tragically lost her life amidst gory tales of how two adults who claim to have adopted her treated her. While we believe that death has no age limit, the eye witness report of residents who in fact apprehended the alleged adoptive father, Paul Onyeama, while he was trying to dispose of the corpse of the child with a tricycle locally known as Keke Marwa, tells a chilling story of inhumanity.
For his alleged accomplice-wife, Adline Ogbonna, her actions defied motherhood virtues. She was reported to have continued her normal day-to-day activities as though there was no tragedy around her, even with the dead child tucked in their room.
We commend the residents who had been observing the couple’s actions against the minor, who raised the alarm over the child’s whereabouts before discovering that she had died. We commend the communal spirit of the residents in exposing this tragic life and death of the little girl.
We also commend the community for not using jungle justice on the couple. They handed them over to the police.
However, we regret that their ‘intervention’ came a tad too late. We would have wished that they raised the necessary alarm on noticing the abuse of the late child. Lagos State seems to have one of the most functional domestic violence agencies in the country. They might have come to the aid of the poor child before her death.
But we wonder whether the agency does enough awareness to sensitise residents enough to take pre-emptive actions. We hope this tragedy would spark a light in this direction.
The report that the said couple adopted the late child stirs some curiosity. Who knows how the couple adopted the child? Did they show any documents to back up their claims? Which orphanage did they adopt the child from, and what were the qualifying criteria for them to win the adoptive privilege? Which government agency is in charge of such issues?
The ministries of youth development and other child protection agencies must do better in terms of monitoring and supervision of such activities. We fear that this couple, given the narrative, might have procured that child without legal official processes. We are aware that there are basic guidelines that must be met before adoptions are approved legally.
For the couple to have been so mean to the late child means that they might not have passed the basic hurdle for adoption, which is a real sense of the mind-set to nurture and protect a child not biologically theirs. Their actions before and after the death of the child shows they both lack the basic empathy and compassion that precedes the urge to want a child.
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We fear that the child might be a product of the now notorious ‘baby factories’ spread across the country. Regular adoption agencies ought to have post-adoption supervisory duties to protect children.
The country must do more to protect Nigerian children at all levels. Adoption agencies must be run in the best international standards and no couple can just get access to a child just because they assume they are entitled to access to a child.
Local governments are closest to the people but their social welfare seems very weak. In the whole reportage, we saw no reference to government intervention in this matter just yet. It is purely a community effort even if we would have loved an earlier intervention.
Having been handed over to the police, we expect the full prosecution of the suspects. There must be a full interrogation of how they got the child in the first place. Their attitude to the child shows a lot about what they are capable of. The alibi of ‘adoptive parents’ must be dug into.
We might just find out that their alleged crimes might be weightier than homicide/murder. Did they legally adopt or did they get that child by other illegal means? Are they innocent of human trafficking? The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) should be involved in this case. Government agencies must do better, especially those that ought to protect children.
