Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria’s South-South region,
would probably have noticed a small make shift building
directly opposite his one bedroom apartment which could
easily be mistaken for a generator cage. To think it is a
place where he stores his old and worn out property would
not be out of place, as it was haphazardly built with wood
and carton on what could be seen as a semi refuse dump
site. It was a feeling of shock when Channels Television
realised that it was not for keeping his generator or other
items but where his 16-year old daughter, Blessing
Olokumo, had called home for almost three years.
Olokumo; a twin who has no relationship with her twin
sister, not because her twin sister was dead. she is simply
ashamed of being associated with her. She is not leprous,
neither is she affected by any contagious disease. She is
just a child who had convulsion when she was three years
old and was not properly monitored by the medical doctors,
so instead of outgrowing it as most children of her age
would probably have done, she has since been battling with
the condition. One would expect her parents to be
sympathetic to her plight and treat her with more care and
attention, but the reverse has been the case, as Blessing is
being treated with utmost disdain by those who are
supposed to love her more.
She has been tagged the evil child, accused of being
responsible for the death of her immediate siblings who
were also twin girls. She has been abandoned by her
parents in a cage for almost three years and left to God to
decide her fate. Luck smiled on Blessing when members of
the Mary Slessor Twin Foundation, a foundation focused
on the welfare of people of multiple birth heard of her
plight and decided to intervene. She was rescued on
January 25, 2014 in a very bad condition and has since
being on admission at the Niger Delta Teaching Hospital,
Okolobiri. Blessing’s father, a security guard at the Niger
Delta Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri was asked how he could
do such to his flesh and blood. He simply stated without
remorse that he was tired of looking after the girl.
“Why I kept her in this house is that when she defecates
and urinates, she soils the whole house when the mother and
myself are not around. So there’s nothing I can do again. I
now isolated her from the apartment I’m living”, he said.
While one may be tempted to call her dad wicked, heartless
and much more, one wonders what words would be adequate
to describe her mother, Mrs Bernice Olokumo, a petty
trader, who accused her daughter of being responsible for
the death of her younger siblings who were also twin girls.
On her relationship with her daughter, she simply said she
was afraid of her and appeals to the Government and other
people of goodwill to come take Blessing from them, as
they were tired of fending for their own child.
To ascertain the present condition of Blessing, Channels
Television paid her a visit at the hospital and met a
transformed girl. Gone were the tiny frame, bony knee and
sunken eyes. A cheerful, robust and well fed child was what
she had become, after just three months of love and care.
On the way forward regarding her medical bills and her
future, efforts to speak with the doctors proved futile,
but the President of the Mary Slessor Twin Foundation, Mr
Ebitei Roberts, spoke. “What we are working on is that
after now when she is discharged, we want to take her to
maybe a motherless babies’ home or any special school to
rehabilitate her. With the way we are seeing things, if we
take her back to the family, they will take her back to
where she was and we don’t want that to repeat itself
because we have spent money.”
The foundation has since lodged a formal complaint with
the Police and the welfare department of the State
Ministry of Women Affairs. The complaints list criminal
charges of child abduction, inhuman treatment, child
molestation and failure to enrol a child for proper
education.
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