Three children abandoned in a boarding school in Abule-Iroko in the
Ado-Odo Ota LGA of Ogun State are longing to meet their parents who have
abandoned them for eight years.
When PUNCH visited Solid Model College, the children recounted their
ordeal, noting that the absence of their parents was affecting their
studies.
Seun Adepegba, 14, Seyi, 10 and Titilola, 13, were severed from parental
love and care since infanthood. After waiting for eight years, they
seemed to have relinquished all hopes of reuniting with their parents.
It was learnt that their tale of sorrow began in 2007 when their father,
Mr Segun Adepegba, who had been separated from their mother, enrolled
them in the boarding school because he could not afford to take care of
them.
According to the proprietor of the school, Mr Samuel Ayegbusi, Adepegba
came to enroll them in his school on September 24, 2007 with a promise
to always check on them. He said:
“Mr. Adepegba told me his wife had just left him and that he could not
afford to take care of them, being a jobless man. The children were very
little. Seyi was two, while Titilola was five.
“Mr Adepegba had pleaded with me to accept them in the boarding school.
Mr Adepegba’s sister promised to bear the cost of their upkeep. They
paid an initial N150,000 for the three children for the first term.”
But according to the proprietor, Adepegba never kept his promise. He
said after the first term, the school expected him to come and take his
children home for holiday but he never showed up until four years later.
He said the school had expended over N7m on the upkeep of the children
since 2007.
The proprietor said efforts to reach the parents’ families had proved
abortive, adding that calls to Adepegba’s phones were not always
answered.
He said, “Whenever we called him and he realised who was talking on the
phone, he would switch off his phones and for the next two weeks, the
numbers would not be available. When the school contacted their father’s
sisters, we were told that they had travelled out of the country.
“When we called one of them, we were told that they had sent money to Mr
Adepegba to defray the children’s school fees and upkeep. But Mr.
Adepegba has never come here to make any payment since the initial
deposit he made in 2007.”
According to the proprietor, taking care of the children had further
become cumbersome for him as one of them, Titilayo, had started
misbehaving. He recounted how Titilayo ran away from the hostel twice
without informing the school authority on the excuse that she was going
to look for her father.
Ever since she was found, the proprietor said the school had had to keep
her in a room, under tight surveillance, because she had vowed to run
away to find her father.
He said, “The school is not even bothered by the cost of their upkeep.
But anytime the school closed for holiday and parents come around to
take their children home, Titilayo would fall into a sober mood and
twice, she had run away from the hostel without informing anyone. It was
a resident who stopped her and brought her back to the school.
Some of the teachers, who spoke with PUNCH Metro during the visit, said
the absence of the children’s parents was seriously affecting their
studies. They said the appearance of their parents would boost their
academic performance.
While recounting their days with their father, the children said he
celebrated birthdays with them. They said they had never met their
mother.
Titilayo said, “We do not know who our mother is. We grew up in Yaba,
Lagos and all we remember is that there was a woman that washed our
clothes and took care of us until we came here. We knew she was not our
mother.”
Seyi, the youngest of the trio, however, was an exception as she kept a
cheerful look during the visit. Seyi, who told our correspondent her
dream was to become a medical doctor said, “Although I have a faint
memory of my father, I will like to see him. If he comes today, I will
ask him why he left us for so long.”
Seun added, “I don’t care how long he has left us. I just want to see him. I really need to see him.”
When
Punch called Adepegba on Thursday, his phones were switched off.