By Saheed Ibrahim
A heart-wrenching discovery awaited me as I uncovered a tragedy hidden behind closed doors in Akure, Ondo State. I found a child on January 6 2025, in a state of despair, unclothed and vulnerable. A concerned neighbour had earlier tipped my contact, who reached out to me via WhatsApp on December 23, 2024, with disturbing visuals. We could not take immediate action as he was not in Akure then. He contacted me again on January 2, 2025, with more astounding evidence, including the baby’s location.
A neighbour revealed that the child’s twin sister had no disability. For this report, I’ll call her ‘Ejire’, a description of twins by the Yorubas, a tribe in Nigeria’s southwest.
Leading the Burst in
Armed with pictorial and video evidence, we traced and located the house to 19, Zone A1, Kajola area of Akure, on January 3, 2025. It was a 10-room ‘face me, I face you’ bungalow with three additional rooms at the back.
Ejire was reportedly kept in one of the back rooms. We arrived almost midday, and most occupants had left for work. We entered through the backdoor, as advised by our source in the neighbourhood. Although we found the room shown in the picture, Ejire was not at the door as depicted.
We couldn’t enter the room to avoid being accused of trespassing, but the overpowering stench from the unlocked room filled our nostrils. Confronting Denials
We exited the house and approached it through the front entrance. We hollered to check if anyone was home. A woman emerged from one of the rooms and attended to us. We revealed our identities and the purpose of our visit, but she immediately denied our inquiry. She claimed no child with a disability was kept in any room in the house.
Undeterred, we followed a tip that Ejire’s mother was a tailor with a shop on the same street. We found the shop, copied the phone number, and called her. Initially reluctant, she opened up after learning we had seen Ejire’s video.
She admitted that the child was indeed in the house and that the father should be there too. She promised to call the father and get back to us. The call, however, never came.
Immediately we left the house, I contacted the Chairperson of the National Association of Nigerian Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Mrs. Tola Gbadamosi, knowing that NAWOJ, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development advocate for children’s welfare in Ondo State.
From Friday through Sunday, I was haunted by nightmares about the child. Accompanied by the NAWOJ Chairperson and an NSCDC officer, I returned to the house on Monday.
A Beautiful Soul in the Dark
Upon arrival, a young woman washing clothes outside the compound also denied knowing any disabled child in the house. I led the team to the dark, stifling room with an overpowering stench like a space filled with urine and faeces.
I scanned the claustrophobic space: sofas, uncovered mattresses, a dusty television, and a sealed window. In the room’s right-hand corner, we found Ejire, an emaciated, naked girl lying on the bare floor, abandoned and suffering.
She managed to turn her frail body from facing the wall to the direction of the light from my phone. Her eyes locked onto mine, silently begging for help. Her collarbones, ribs, and veins protruded visibly, depicting starvation and neglect. She opened her mouth but all that escaped was a short, creaking sound: “Hinnnnnns!”
Tears streamed down my face. “She is here,” I alerted the others.
The room had two wooden windows, but only one was open. The other was permanently nailed shut. Just behind the window were the house’s toilet and bathroom, mere inches away, resembling a poorly maintained public facility.
The NSCDC officer demanded everyone in the house step forward. In a surprising twist, one of the tenants, nicknamed Alfa, is an NSCDC officer. He denied any knowledge of the child’s condition. The landlord and Ejire’s parents were summoned. While the father came, Ejire’s mother had travelled with her twin for a social event.
I’ve Tried My Best – Father
Ejire’s father, Mr Ibrahim Abdulmalik, denied abandoning his six-year-old daughter, insisting that he had made significant efforts to seek treatment for her medical condition.
The 29-year-old native of Kogi State claimed that he had taken the child to a doctor who prescribed some expensive and rare medications. Despite selling his properties to purchase them, her condition simply worsened.
Mr Ibrahim admitted that the child had not been bathed for two weeks, which explained the foul stench in the room, compounded by the proximity of the bathroom and toilet behind the window.
He was immediately instructed to bathe and clothe the child before she was taken for medical attention. The transformation was remarkable; her light skin and calm expression, now visible, revealed the care and attention she had been deprived of for so long.
Mr Ibrahim, accompanied by the NAWOJ chairperson, an NSCDC official and I, took Ejire to the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure for medical care. Throughout the process, the father remained impassive, but it was irrelevant at that point as the child’s well-being was paramount.
Ondo Government Intervenes
Following the public alarm I raised with my first story about the child’s condition, the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, in collaboration with FIDA and NAWOJ, convened a meeting with the parents.
The Director of Child Welfare at the Ministry, Odushola Oluseyi Oluwakemi, condemned the abandonment as unacceptable and rooted in ignorance. She stressed that parents have a fundamental duty to care for their children, regardless of the challenges.
Odushola confirmed that Ejire suffers from physical, speech, and hearing impairments.
“The parents decided to abandon her because of financial limitations, but it is their responsibility to care for her, regardless of those constraints,” Oluwakemi said.
She further disclosed that the ministry would take steps to ensure Ejire receives adequate care and would refer the parents to an institution equipped to provide the necessary support.
One Month After, No Help Received – Parents
On February 21, 2025, we contacted Ejire’s parents to follow up on whether the government has fulfilled its side promise to support them and to make them realise that we are following up on the case.
According to Mrs Ibrahim, she had not heard anything from the government since the day they visited the ministry.
“Since then, they (the government) have not spoken to us again, We only have their promise,” Ejire’s mother said.
Asking about the current health of Ejire, her mother said, “She’s fine”.
Not Only Ejire, There are Millions Like Her
The abandonment, maltreatment, and denial of rights for children with disabilities is a global crisis. Similar to Ejire’s case, Chinedu, who was born with cerebral palsy, was reportedly abandoned and neglected after his mother’s death. As described by BusinessDay, his body and head were covered in festering abscesses and sores. One of his family members, Kelechi Anozie, told BusinessDay that nobody had time to take care of Chinedu because they had to work.
In another report, Global Voices revealed how a boy with Down Syndrome was abandoned at a special school for children with special needs in Ibadan.
At a facility built in 2011 and managed by the Lagos State Government, Punch Newspaper reported how the Children’s Centre was shut down, forcing parents to bear the full burden of raising these special children alone. In 2024, ThisDay reported that a mother accused the Ketu Children Care Centre of abusing her child, leaving him in critical condition. In Ondo State, an investigation by African Women in Media (AWIM) revealed how girls with disabilities were abused in a government school.
In Nigeria, the abuse and neglect of children with disabilities remains underreported, and the absence of a proper database hinders efforts to determine their numbers accurately. Dataphyte in 2020 reported that an estimated 25 million Nigerians, including children, are socially, economically and politically excluded due to disabilities. In 2022, Save the Children International (SCI) puts the estimate at 32 million. SCI revealed that 95.5% of children with disabilities in the country have no access to education and often face various forms of discrimination. The Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) estimates that 5 to 7 million children with disabilities are out of school in Nigeria.
Asylos highlighted how families, communities, and non-state actors subject children with disabilities in Nigeria to discrimination, abandonment, and neglect due to negative cultural beliefs and social stigma.
The cases of Ejire, Chinedu, and the boy with Down Syndrome, as well as the allegations of abuse at the Ketu Children Care Centre and the School for the Blind, Owo, further exemplify how such harmful cultural and societal perceptions translate into maltreatment and neglect.
Similar cases of abandonment, abuse, and even murder of children with disabilities have been documented in Georgia, Mexico, Paraguay, England, the USA, Russia, and other parts of the world. UNICEF revealed that there are nearly 240 million children with disabilities worldwide, and they are mostly denied basic rights.
Effects of Abuse, Abandonment on Children with Disabilities
Although disabilities could be caused by preventable diseases, congenital malformation, birth-related incidents, physical injury and psychological dysfunction, a study in the American Academy of Pediatrics revealed that it could lead to emotional trauma, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The absence of proper care and emotional support deprives these children of essential developmental milestones, potentially leading to delayed or stunted growth.
UNICEF and SCI have also identified that children with disabilities are highly vulnerable to exploitation. They may face increased risks of sexual abuse, often perpetrated by those in positions of authority or care.
Are there Laws Protecting Children with Disabilities?
Ejire’s parents have violated the law by abandoning her without adequate care, a legal practitioner, Bolanle Olafumiloye, said. The Chairperson of FIDA in Ondo State said the Child Rights Law of Ondo State (2007) protects children from neglect, abuse, and discrimination.
“Under the law, parents must care for their children. Neglecting or abandoning a child is a crime punishable by law. It is an offence to maltreat or abandon a child you have brought into this world,” Olafumiloye said.
These provisions align with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which prohibits discrimination based on disability and affirms the right of children with disabilities to enjoy the same rights as all other children. The United Nations’ Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act (2018) further provides for fines or imprisonment for anyone found guilty of discriminating against persons with disabilities.
UNICEF also highlights that children with disabilities have the same rights to family life as other children. Moreover, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, under Article 13, reinforces this protection by ensuring “special measures of protection” for mentally or physically disabled children to promote their dignity, self-reliance, and full participation in their communities.
The combined framework of these laws places specific obligations on the government to ensure adequate care and protection for children with disabilities, highlighting the legal consequences of neglect and abuse in cases like Ejire’s.
Way Forward
Showumi appealed to the government to provide adequate support for Ejire and educate her parents on the necessity of proper care. He further urged the government to establish free hospitals for children with disabilities to meet their healthcare needs, considering the current socio-economic challenges. “This will provide essential support to parents and promote psychosocial and emotional balance, helping them better care for their children with disabilities,” he noted.
Also, the Executive Director, Centre for Disability and Inclusion Africa, Mr Yinka Olaito emphasised the need for the government to support parents who have children with disabilities. He added that the cost of raising a child with disability is beyond what an average parent can afford.
He called for more sensitisation of parents that having children with disabilities, not to view their children’s disabilities with a bad lens.
Olaito further called on government at all levels for the enforcement of laws protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, especially children.
“Civil society like ours and every other stakeholder need to begin to do a lot of awareness that having a child with disability is not evil,” he concluded.
This story was done for the Centre for Storytelling and Development Initiative to highlight underreported issues affecting persons with disabilities and marginalised communities