Though mentally challenged Mrs. Cecilia Babalola may be taken for granted by an average person, she understands the essence of education and strives hard to ensure her two children acquire it.
She is homeless and lives in the bush with her two children! Her home is a solitary hut located in the middle of a bush at the back of the premises of the Obafemi Awolowo University Distance Learning campus in Moro, Ife North Local Government Area of Osun State.
But Babalola would not allow her condition to affect the future of her two male kids! Even while some parents of sane mind find it hard to guarantee the education of their wards, Iya Segun, as Babalola is popularly known, has been ensuring that her two kids go to school like other normal children.
Owing to her predicament, Babalola, from her solitary home in the bush, sends her two kids to a nearby public school every day. Nobody knows how she enrolled the two boys in school. She also fends for herself and her two kids.
To eke out a living, Iya SeHow Osun govt rescued mentally challenged Iya Segun, kids from the bush gun, it was learnt, comes out from her strange abode once in a while to beg for alms and foodstuff before returning later to her home in the bush.
According to a resident of Moro, who pleaded anonymity, the two deprived children of 54-year-old Iya Segun leave their home in the bush every morning to attend classes at the Elementary Government School inside the town and return to their abode after school hours.
Interestingly, not many of Babalola’s children’s schoolmates can imagine that the two boys live in the most unthinkable place with a mentally challenged mother. All previous efforts to take Iya Segun out of her situation in the bush, it was learnt, had, until recently, proved abortive as she had always resisted.
Touched by her predicament, some residents of the Moro community, who had been monitoring Babalola and her children’s movement, brought her case to the notice of the officials of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare in the state.
Consequently, some officials of the Welfare Department of the ministry, escorted by some armed policemen, visited the bush, where they discovered that Babalola had made a hut in which she lived with her children.
The woman and her children -Deji,12 and five-year-old Ojo, were eventually taken out of the bush by the ministry officials aided by the police. While the woman was taken to the ministry’s Rehabilitation Home of the Special Needs in Osogbo, her two kids were admitted at an orphanage home on the directive of the state government.
A resident of the community, who identified herself as a cousin to Iya Segun, said that the family had made several efforts to relocate Iya Segun and her children from the bush, but to no avail. She also disclosed that the family had not been able to find a cure for the strange ailment afflicting Babalola.
After being rescued from the bush along with her children, Babalola was incoherent in her speech, when asked questions, and also behaved in strange ways.
The Investigating Police Officer from Ipetumodu Police Station, Sergeant Idowu Irewole, told our correspondent that further investigations would be carried out to know the whereabouts of Babalola’s husband and what led to her living in the bush.
When our correspondent visited the school Babalola’s kids attended, the headmistress of the school, who refused to disclose her name, described the two children as intelligent and well behaved.
She added that though they often looked unkempt, they were punctual and regular in school.
The headmistress, however, stated that the children never told anyone where they were living and that none of the teachers knew that they were living in a bush with their mentally challenged mother.
Meanwhile, the Press Officer of the ministry, Abisola Ariwodola, commended the residents of Moro community, who discovered and reported Babalola’s situation to the appropriate quarters.
Ariwodola said that the state government was on top of the situation, stressing that with the provision of manpower and facilities to rehabilitation centres in the state, the victims would be taken good care of.
Ariwodola then called on residents of the state to be vigilant and be their brother’s keeper by assisting the less privileged, especially as it concerned women and children. She added that such situations should be reported to the ministry for necessary action.
The ministry’s information officer said, “The issue was brought to the attention of the Welfare Department of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, by a good Samaritan in Moro during a live programme of the ministry on radio. We later contacted the informant, who described the location of the bush to us.
Immediately after we ended the programme, we swung into action by notifying the police in the zone to ensure that the woman and her children were evacuated from the bush. “I and other officers of the ministry went with the police in search of the woman.
We discovered that the woman, who was not coherent in her utterances and behaving in a strange manner, had been living in the bush for a long time with her two children. We discovered that she cooked with firewood in that bush.”
She added, “We want to believe that she was sound when she gave birth to the kids, but may be along the line, she lost her sanity due to some forces, and the solitary life she has been living would not help her situation.
“The government of the State of Osun under the leadership of Governor Rauf Aregbesola is on top of the situation.
She will be rehabilitated and we want to urge other residents to ensure that they report cases like this to the ministry for prompt and necessary actions.”
