By Julius Alabi
A resident of Akure, the Ondo State capital, Temitope Adeniyi has raised the alarm over the sudden disappearance of his daughter, Oluwadarasimi Emmanuella Adeniyi.
Until the incidence, Emmanuella was a student of Bestway Nursery and Primary School, Akure, Ondo State.
Adeniyi said he was alarmed when he came to pick the little girl after school hours and was told that the mother had earlier come to pick her.
Adeniyi later said that his former mistress who happens to be the mother of the little Emmanuella picked the girl up from school and thereafter escaped with her to the United States of America.
“I am not oblivious of the fact that my former mistress and her new husband traveled to the United States for holiday sometime in 2017. But how she managed to surreptitiously obtained another international passport for Emmanuella in her husband’s name and succeeded in escaping with the little girl to the US this December still remains a mystery to me,” explained Adeniyi.
It was gathered that Emmanuella’s mother who is already married to another man left a note and also sent an SMS to Adeniyi concerning the disappearance of Emmanuella.
He informed that the note and SMS from Emmanuella’s mother read that she had been taken to the United States to escape being subjected to the harmful practice of genital mutilation which is a norm in the family of Adeniyi.
When asked if genital mutilation was still being practiced in the family of Adeniyi, he responded in the affirmative. Although he contended that the family practice should not have been a sufficient ground for his erstwhile mistress to have picked and escaped with his daughter without his knowledge and consent.
When further prodded on the steps so far taken by Adeniyi to officially report the case, he said: “It’s been confirmed that my daughter was picked from her school and taken out of the country to the United States by her mother and her husband without my consent and under a false name.
“I have notified the police and written letters of complaints to the US Embassy, Nigeria Embassy in the US and some concerned agencies in US. And of course, I have also written to NAPTIP and Nigerian Immigration Service that issued another passport to my daughter having earlier gotten one international passport for her myself.”
Meanwhile, investigations have revealed that genital mutilation still remains a practice in Ondo State despite the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act that was signed into law in 2015.
It was further gathered that the law was promulgated by the federal government but not yet domesticated by Ondo State and several other states in the country.
When the State Police Public Relations Officer, Femi Joseph was contacted, he confirmed that it had been established that a primary school pupil, Olawadarasimi Emmanuella Adeniyi was actually picked up from her school in Akure and taken abroad by someone suspected to be the mother without the consent of her father.
The PPRO also added that the school proprietress and the class teacher of Emmanuella had been interrogated by the police.