Twenty-year-old Opeyemi Olatoke has regained her freedom after years of being kept in an abandoned building by her own father.
Theeditorngr.com understands the lady was locked up in an abandoned house located at Alfa Fire area, Ikirun in Ifelodun Local Government Area, Osun State by her father Samson Olatoke.
Help however came her way when the matter was discovered and reported by an NGO; Value Female Network who took the case before the Osun State Women, Children and Social Affairs Commissioner, Barr. Olubukola Olaboopo.
With the help of the Osun State Police Command, the girl has now been rescued according to a statement made available to newsmen on Monday by the Commissioner’s media assistant, Oyedele Kehinde.
The father of the girl who was alleged to have locked up his daughter and her brother were also arrested by the police.
The statement reads; “The ministry and the police swung into action, we went to the house where the 20-year-old girl was locked up by her father. The father disclosed that he locked up the girl because she was physically challenged. The victim’s mother informed us that Opeyemi’s health started to deteriorate when she shouted from her sleep at age four and since then she was lame.â€
On how they discovered the girl’s whereabouts, the founder of Value Female Network NGO, Dr Aderibigbe Costly, explained that “an anonymous source disclosed the information to our organization, that a man had locked up his physically challenged child in an abandoned family house for five years in Ikirun, adding that the father of the child only feeds the girl once in a while.â€
Barr. Olaboopo urged parents to take good care of their children, noting that parents found maltreating their wards will be dealt with according to the Laws of the State.
The Commissioner stressed that the government of Governor Gboyega Oyetola is determined to protect the vulnerable and the less privileged.
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