WHO IS ACTUALLY
THE BIOLOGICAL PARENTS OF THIS 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL? This is the question that the
officers and men of the Oyo State Police Command are trying to unravel. In Oyo
State, two couples are laying claim to a 17-year-old girl and the assignment is
a difficult one for the police for a number of reasons.
The two couples
gave the same name to their own daughters; the two couples also bear the same
surnames and they both hail from Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.
The couples – Mr.
and Mrs. Timothy Oladapo and Alhaji and Alhaja Ganiyu Oladapo – are each
claiming to be the biological parents of a girl, Suruyatu Oladapo. Mr. and Mrs.
Timothy Oladapo said they gave birth to their daughter – Suruyatu Oladapo at the
CAC Mission Clinic while Alhaji and Alhaja Oladapo said their own baby was
delivered in their house. Speaking with Daily Sun, Mr. Timothy Oladapo said he
got married to his wife in 1988 and they had seven children.
“My first son died
and my daughter, Suruyatu Esther Oladapo, got missing at the age of six years.
That was in September 2002. I came from a Muslim family but today, I am a
Christian. My daughter, Suruyatu Esther Oladapo, was delivered at the CAC
Mission Ministry, Ile Ayo Gbaremu area, Ibadan, Oyo State.”
He further
explained: “My girl, Suruyatu, attended Beacy Nursery and Primary School and
she was registered in 2002 at the age of six years. Later, she was taken to
Oluwadamilola Nursery and Primary School.
That was where she
got missing from the school in September 2002. They were four pupils that went
to school that fateful day. Two of them were my friend’s daughters. Suddenly I
was called from Saki that my little daughter, Suruyatu, was missing. We quickly
went to Gbagi Police Station to report a case of child missing.
“The announcement
was made on Radio Nigeria, Ibadan. Later we went to the Ministry of Information
with my lawyer, who is now a magistrate in Iyaganku. We went and sued the
school in court and there and then the school was closed down.” Mr. Timothy
Oladapo added that “all members of the landlords association, including
friends, came to plead with me and the school was reopened and we withdrew the
case from court.”
“But on February
27, this year, my friend called that he saw my missing daughter, Suruyatu, at
Urban Day Grammar School at Ola-Ogun, Ibadan. Immediately, I ordered my wife to
go to the school and that she should take along a photograph of our daughter as
at when she was declared missing. On February 28, my wife went to the school
with the picture to identify her and she went to meet with the principal and
told her that her missing daughter had
been found in the school.”
But that only led
to more confusion, as the principal invited the other couple, Alhaji and Alhaja
Ganiyu Oladapo, and said the case was beyond his power.
“I had to call my
lawyer and we quickly went to the Gbagi Police Station to report the incident.
The police invited the other couple, who also claimed that they were the
biological parents of Suruyatu,” Timothy Oladapo said. Also speaking, Alhaji
Ganiyu Oladapo told Daily Sun that he was a retired staffer of the Power
Holding Corporation of Nigeria (PHCN) and that he lived at Ola Ogun area of
Ibadan. He said his wife was delivered of a baby girl, who they named Surayatu
on October 25, 2007, adding that the baby girl was delivered in his backyard.
“My daughter, Surayatu Oladapo, started from IDC Primary School, Gbagi, where
she had her primary education.
I have eight
children and all of them are alive. Suruyatu is the last born. I was the one
who took her to Urban Day Grammar School at Ola-Ogun on Old Ife Road, Ibadan.
The school building is three buildings to my house. “On February 28, this year,
I got information that a woman came to her school and claimed that she was the
biological mother of my daughter and that she came with a picture to identify
her. “I was shocked,” he said. “Later, the police from Gbagi came to arrest me.
The police also went to her primary school to find out whether she attended the
school or not and they found out that her records were there.
The police went to
my house and they asked my neighbours to find out whether I was the biological
father of the girl and my neighbours testified that I was the father. They went
to three buildings beside my house and inquired whether the child belonged to
me and the people said yes.
“On March 1, I
quickly went to call my Imam, who came for the naming of my daughter and who
named her Suruyatu. My Imam went to Gbagi Police Station to write his own statement.”
Also speaking, the girl at the centre of the story, Suruyatu, told Daily Sun
that “I am telling you now that Alhaji Ganiyu Oladapo is my biological father.
I was in my class
on February 28 when my classmates called me out and said some people were
looking for me. A woman asked me if I was Suruyatu and I said yes. She told me
that I was a missing girl and I couldn’t understand what she meant. Later, the
principal of our school called me and asked me some questions and I told him
that I was staying with my parents.”
When this reporter
visited the Urban Day Grammar School, one of the senior teachers, who didn’t
want his identity revealed because he was not authorised to speak to the media,
said Suruyatu Oladapo was a bonafide student of the school. The Assistant
Commissioner of Police (ACP), State CID, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Mr. Galanchi Dasuki,
told the reporter that the police had started investigation into the matter.
He said the case
was transferred to the State CID from Gbagi Police Station. “We have invited
the two couples and we have heard from them.
We have also held
talks with the victim, Suruyatu Oladapo,” he explained. The Oyo State
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Indabawa, said the police were aware of
the controversies over who the biological parents of Suruyatu were. Indabawa
said the victim, Suruyatu, had been placed in police custody at the State
CID Iyaganku “to enable us conclude our
investigation. We have sent the parties to the University College Hospital
Ibadan for DNA test to know the real biological parents of Suruyatu Oladapo.”
He advised both
couples to exercise restraint until the conclusion of the investigation by the
police.
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