My dad feeds me with N10 biscuits daily, says 8-yr-old girl

Unlike most children in the society, who are well catered for by their parents, 8-yearold Ayomide Osisanwo’s story is completely different, despite living under the same roof with her father, Alaba Osisanwo, a commercial bus driver in Lagos.
Without any extra efforts, anyone who comes in contact with Ayomide for the first time, would easily see tell-tale signs of what she has been going through, especially when she narrates her ordeal in the hands of her biological father.
Ayomide claims that her father has been maltreating her by starving her of food and feeding her only on N10 worth of biscuits every day.
When our correspondent met the primary 3 pupil of Glorious Nursery and Primary School, Shagari Estate, Ipaja, Lagos in the company of her mother, she appeared emaciated, bony and malnourished.
Her gaunt appearance elicited some questions from our correspondent to her mother, Rofiat.
Ayomide told our correspondent that she was maltreated by her father.
She said, “While I was with my father at 5, Taiwo Street, Abule Iroko, I only ate once in a day. And in most cases, the only food I ate was N10 biscuit, which would only be given to me in the afternoon. After this, I wouldn’t eat any other thing till the next day.”
When asked if she lived with her father alone, Ayomide said, “Our grandmother also lives with us. She was the one that usually bought me the biscuit in the afternoon. But she would eat her own food alone, saying my food is not included in hers”.
Our correspondent, however, gathered that Osisanwo, who drives a commercial bus for a living, deposits a thousand Naira daily with his own mother to feed Ayomide and other grandchildren living with her.
But the old woman, it was learnt, would only spend the money as it pleased her.
Ayomide’s mother, Rofiat, who spoke on her daughter’s ordeal in the hands of her former husband, Osisanwo, from whom she is now separated, explained that she regretted her early life’s decision of putting up with Ayomide’s father.
“I am so unfortunate with Alaba, who is the father of my first daughter, Ayomide. Though our union seemed to be a fortunate one, it turned sour three months after I gave birth to Ayomide. On several occasions, I was beaten mercilessly whenever he got back from work and drunk. I was equally molested and locked outside with my daughter when she was three months old.
“When I was no more living with him, he will also come to my work place and beat me mercilessly, saying I must give him our few months old daughter. And when the suffering seemed to be more than what I could bear, I had to divorce him in a customary court at Iyana Ipaja. And since then, he has been threatening me and my mother to give him Ayomide, even before she clocked a year. But I insisted on not giving my baby to him. Since then, he has not contributed to the well-being of this girl,” she said.
On how her daughter was recently allegedly tormented by her ex-husband, Rofiat further recounted, “When there was much pressure on me to let him have Ayomide, I released her to him, only for people to come and narrate to me the ordeal that she was facing there. And truly, when I went there to see her, I wept a lot, because she had been tormented and molested. Since then, I have been making efforts to take her away from him”.
Ayomide’s maternal grandmother, Mrs Olanike Badmus, also confirmed that Ayomide was fed two times a day but with garri and biscuit.
“Ayomide is eight years old; she has been abused by her father. He didn’t pay a kobo since the girl was born. He kept saying he wants the child back. After much pressure, we asked the mother to allow the girl spend holiday with him but he insisted that the child should be dropped for him and we later agreed to that.
“And since that time, we discovered that the girl faced a lot of abuse with him. On several occasions, after being drunk, he would pounce on her and beat her mercilessly while she would not be given food. And on some days that she was given food, she was given garri and sugar to drink in the morning, no food in the afternoon and N10 biscuit at night.”
In his response to the allegations against him, Osisanwo said that due to the busy nature of his profession, he had to leave Ayomide in the care of his own mother every day.
He said that he was not bothered by the allegations because they were meant to paint him in bad light, adding that he was ready to defend himself against his former wife’s claims.
Osisanwo told our correspondent on the phone, “All what they are saying are flimsy. If I may tell you, Ayomide is not the only child I have, and all of them are with my mother because of the busy nature of my work. And whenever I go to see them, I cater for them in my little way. So, for her to be alleging that I maltreated my own child is a plan to defame me and I’m ready to go to any length with her. I am a hard working person who doesn’t play with my children’s welfare”.
Meanwhile, the founder of a human right advocacy centre, Joshabel Touch a heart Foundation, Mrs Favour Benson, has vowed to seek justice for the 8-year-old girl.
Benson said her human right group had already taken over the case, adding that the rate at which the young girl and her mother were being molested was unbearable.
“We are currently on the case and justice will surely prevail. The rate at which the young girl was abused is pathetic and we will ensure that we get justice for her”, she said.