PUNCH Metro reported that when they
visited Solid Model College, the children recounted their ordeal, noting that
the absence of their parents was affecting their studies.
Seun Adepegba, 14,Seyi, 10 and Titilola, 13, had been severed from parental
love and care since
infanthood. After waiting for eight years, they seemed to have
relinquished all hopes of reuniting with their parents.
It was learnt that their 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. He said:
“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.”
But according to the proprietor,
Adepegba never kept his promise. He said after the first term, the school
expected him 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. He said:
“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. He said:
“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.
Some of the teachers, who spoke with
PUNCH Metro during the visit, said the absence of the children’s parents was
seriously affecting their studies. They said the appearance of their parents
would boost their academic performance.
While recounting their days with their father, the children said he 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.”
Seyi, the youngest of the trio,
however, was an exception as she kept a cheerful look during the visit. Seyi,
who told PUNCH correspondent her dream was to become a medical doctor said:
“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.”
Seun added:
“I don’t care how long he has left
us. I just want to see him. I really need to see him.”
PUNCH Metro says when they
called Adepegba on Thursday, his phones were switched off.
