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Monday 3 November 2014
Reps probe Norway’s forceful adoption of Nigerian baby
The House of Representatives has re-opened
investigations into the alleged forceful adoption
of a one-year-old baby belonging to a Nigerian by
the Norwegian government.
The decision was sequel to a petition filed by Edo
State born-Nigerian mother of the child, based in
Norway, Ms. Queen Agho, to the House over the
matter.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Queen conceived the
baby in Nigeria before travelling to Norway.
It was learnt that when she was delivered of the
baby boy in Leirfjord, Norway on April 12 2013,
the baby was taken from her by the Child Welfare
Authorities, barely two weeks after the delivery
on the excuse that Agho was mentally unstable
and incapable of taking care of him.
The baby was said to have been given to a
Norwegian lady for adoption on the excuse that
mother (Agho) and child did not have an
emotional connection and lacked eye contact.
The action of the Norwegian government was said
to have left her psychologically and emotionally
depressed.
The Minority Whip in the House, Mr. Samson
Osagie, had brought the issue before the House
following a petition by Agho.
He asked for the intervention of the House,
stressing that the case should be “treated with the
utmost attention it deserves as in my constituent,
a mother is being deprived of the privilege of
motherhood. The mother, Agho, wants her child
back immediately.”
When contacted, the Chairperson, House of
Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Ms.
Abike Dabiri, confirmed that efforts were on to
address the issue.
She said, “We are aware of the case and we have
gone far with it. In fact, we have met with the
Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria and we would
have met with the Child Support people from
Norway two weeks ago.
“The meeting had to be rescheduled because of
the strike by Lufthansa employees in Germany.
Their flight was cancelled. We are looking towards
another date for the meeting. But I can tell you
we are on it.”
The spokesperson for the family, Mr. Kelvin
Izekor, said several efforts by Agho to contest the
forceful adoption through an Appeal Court had
been frustrated by the Norwegian authorities.
According to him, the Nigerian Embassy in
Stockholm, Sweden which is overseeing affairs in
Norway and the National Assembly has waded
into the issue without any positive result.
He said the Norwegian Child Welfare Authorities
claimed that Agho was forcefully taken to a
psychiatric home by the police and child welfare
for the purpose of generating official evidence to
substantiate their claims.
But Izekor faulted the claim saying the doctor had
confirmed her to be mentally fit and healthy to
care for her baby.
He also stated that officials of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Abuja had not been forthcoming
as efforts to compel the Norwegian government
to stop the adoption had not been successful.
Agho, according to her uncle, took her case to the
Nigeria Embassy in Sweden and the embassy
stepped in as it officially laid a complaint.
The embassy officially requested for the
intervention of the Swedish Government through
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rotal Kingdom of
Norway.
The embassy, in its official complaint (Note
verbale) dated September 18, 2013, condemned
the act, describing it as inhumane infringement of
basic fundamental human rights and a child’s
right to a family.
The embassy also decried the increasing cases of
arbitrary seizure of Nigerian children over flimsy
reasons.
The letter reads in part, “The embassy wishes to
register its utmost displeasure with the manner in
which, a nursing mother, Ms. Agho, was treated.
For such treatment to be meted out to a
defenceless woman who had just given birth to
her first child is most inhumane and certainly is in
breach of all human rights practices.
“The allegation that there was no connection
between mother and child and lack of eye contact
within the first two weeks of the baby’s life seems
to be in total contradiction of the reality of the
mother’s position.
“The embassy therefore wishes to once more
seize this opportunity to draw the attention of the
esteemed Royal Ministry to the increasing cases
of arbitrary seizure of Nigerian children on very
flimsy and unacceptable reasons.
“The decision to seize a suckling baby of two
weeks and four days from its mother and deprive
the baby of the essential nutrients of breast milk
and motherly love from his biological mother is
indeed inhuman and an infringement of the
mother’s most basic fundamental human rights
and child’s right to a family life.”
When contacted on the telephone, Queen who is
in Norway told PUNCH Metro that the Norwegian
Child Welfare Authorities, had already taken away
the baby “for adoption for a period of 18 years.”
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