A mother has accused her child's father of using police officers to intimidate her and forcefully take custody of their 4-year-old daughter despite court granting her temporary custody.
Ms Damilola Ogun and her child's father Eniola Adenuga are in the midst of a custody battle for their daughter but Ms Damilola says her child's father hasn't been respecting the court order which granted her interim custody and granted him visitation rights.
She accused her child's father of storming her family home this morning with at least 25 police officers to forcefully take their child. When her family tried to fight for her and prevent them from taking the child, the officers allegedly strangled Damilola's mum, handcuffed her brother, tied Damilola up, then took the child.
Ms Damilola says this isn't the first time Mr Eniola is intimidating her to take their child. On May 18, 2018, he reportedly took their child forcefully with the aid of armed policemen. Efforts from Ms Damilola and from the court to reach him allegedly proved abortive. Eventually, after a hearing at the Magistrate Court, Ms Damilola said she was granted custody.
However, her child's father took the case to "High Court for judicial review of proceedings" and the Judge asked the couple to settle out of court. Rather than settle, Mr Eniola allegedly went behind Ms Damilola and her lawyers' back to present a letter signed by his counsel alone, claiming they had reached an agreement, which his child's mother was not aware of.
Ms Damilola said based on Mr Eniola's letter of agreement which she and her lawyers knew nothing about, the High Court went ahead to issue an order in her child's father's favor.
She told LIB: "And despite not hearing my side on a date I nor my lawyers were aware of an order was made based on the purported agreement.
"We appealed against this order at the Court of Appeal and despite having records of appeal and number the judge insisted I must obey this order I knew nothing about."
She said the judge further gave an order for her daugter to be taken from her and when she went ahead to apeal against the order, she was arrested and detained for over a week.
She said: "We also appealed against this order at the court of appeal. But on 25th April 2019 the police forcefully arrested me and insisted if I don’t realease my daughter I would be detained. I was detained for 8 days until the Chief Justice transferred my case from this said high court judge.
"The matter is now at the appeal court where it was ordered for us to settle."
In spite of fresh orders by the court for the coule to reach an out of court settlement, Ms Damilola said her child's father stormed their home with officers this morning, June 7, 2019, and employed force to take the chid.
She lamented saying: "Again the police force came to my house attempted to break my house, beat my mother and my brother and pushed me to the ground and forcefully took my daughter - who was about to shower - away from me.
"I do not know where to run to and I cry for help because my four-year-old has been taken from me. I have been assaulted, jailed and damaged because of my four year old.
However, the child's father told LIB he took custody of their daughter because her mother wasn't giving her the best care, just to spite him, and the child had been away from school for months.
He said the child's body was always bruised and she looked malnourished. He went on to share photos of his child's bruised body as proof.
The child's leg
He said: "My child hasn't been in school in 6 months. She's malnourished. The mum said she'll rather kill the child than give the child to me.
"She was pulling her hand as if they wanted to pull her hand from the socket. Her brother started attacking me so the police had to hand cuff him."
Mr Eniola Adenuga also shared a court order from the High Court in Lagos State which gave permission for the Nigerian Police Force to rescue the child if not returned to him. Mr Eniola said the police had to employ force because Damilola and her family put up a fight and ripped his clothes.
Below are screenshots of the court order.
No comments:
Post a Comment