HEARTLESS: Father Abandons Three Children In Boarding School For Eight Years

How can a responsible father abandon his three children with strangers for 8 years? Tongues are wagging and eyebrows are being raised over the apparent abandonment of three children » of the same parents in a boarding school for eight years by their father » in Abule- Iroko in the Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State. The school, Solid Model College, is also at a loss at what to do with the three kids, Seun, 14, Seyi, 10 and Titilola Adepegba, 13, whose parents have not bothered to see to their welfare for close to ten years. According to Punch Newspaper which visited the school, the absence of the parents is affecting the studies of the children as well as their psychological make up. The school authorities also believe that after being severed from parental love since infantcy, the children seemed to have relinquished all hopes of reuniting with their parents and are longing to meet their parents. Punch gathered that the kid's 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. 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. However, Adepegba never kept his promise, as he disappeared into thin air, leaving his kids to their fates. Ayegbusi said after the first term, the school expected Adepegba 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. 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. 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. Recounting their days with their father, the children told the paper that their father 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. Seun added: I don’t care how long he has left us. I just want to see him. I really need to see him. Seyi, the youngest of the three children, told the reporters that her dream was to become a medical doctor. 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.