*She is our stolen but found daughter says Mrs. Okwudili
*No, I didn't steal, I legally adopted her- Mrs. Agulanna
*We are investigating to unravel the truth- Police
Image:SaharaReporters.
Two families in Enugu are presently squabbling over ownership of a 20-year-old girl, Juliet Agulanna.
Mr. Lawrence and Mrs. Mariatha Agulanna, say they adopted Juliet as a week-old baby from the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Imo State branch, on June 21, 2002, and they have the document to prove that.
The second couple, Prof. Michael and Mrs. Gloria Okwudili say that Juliet is their son's missing twin sister and a DNA test has proven that she is their biological daughter.
SaharaReporters and The Punch spoke with the women at the center of the paternity tussle as well as other parties involved in the unfolding drama.
Here I present their accounts, starting with Mrs. Gloria Okwudili.
The Genesis: Mrs. Gloria Okwudili
“I got married in September 1997. However, by 1997, 98, and 99, I was waiting for the fruit of the womb because I couldn't take it in. So my sister-in-law recommended that we meet a gynecologist, Dr. Oguannua. Then he was the head of the family clinic of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu but also had a private hospital in New Haven called Madonna Infirmary Hospital. She told us that he was good at fertility medicine.
“That was how we went to the hospital. After a series of tests, he concluded that I had a hormonal imbalance. He now placed me on two drugs - Parlodel and Clomid. Those drugs enhance ovulation which can trigger multiple fertilization. I started the medication in late 2000 and in October 2001, I took it in.
"I went for the pregnancy test and it came out positive. I also went to see Dr. Oguannua and after he conducted another test it was positive. From that time, he continued managing the pregnancy till I delivered.
“I didn’t visit any other hospital or carry out pregnancy tests outside his hospital. Dr. Oguannua had an ultrasound machine that he used to monitor the baby's growth and performance.
"On one of the days I went for antenatal he said that the baby is a precious child - I am using his words, "this is a precious child oh! God, I worship you." He was so happy and I also was happy. He said it is a boy.”
“On the 12th of July 2002 I went for antenatal care and after going through the ultrasound, again he said “this is a precious child oh! It is a boy. Okwudili I don't want you to waste time oh! Just carry everything and come to the hospital on Monday 15th of July 2002.
"On Monday, in the morning I packed everything, having discussed with my husband what the doctor had told me. I didn't have any problem, no sign of labor; there was no show to suggest that I'm going into labor. I had to go to the hospital because I didn’t want any problem or loss of my son."
Child Delivery
“The doctor instructed one Eucharia Udeh, a Chief Nurse, to put Pitocin in a drip for me. I didn’t know what the drip was all about initially but later I got to know that it was for labor inducement. Thereafter, the nurse took me to one of the private rooms upstairs. She put the drip and injected the Pitocin in the drip.
"After that Monday morning, I didn't see the doctor again until Wednesday night but the nurse continued with the inducement drug.”
“On that Wednesday when they put the drug again I was getting weak, you know when you are in labor you don't have to eat, so I was so weak. In the evening my husband came, he saw me, and how I was reeling in pain and said he will not go back to the house. That he would stay with me.”
"But because they know what they were up to, Nurse Udeh and other nurses started persuading him to go home so that they will take care of me. That it is their job to take care of me.
After so much persuasion he agreed and went home. He left around 11:30 pm and by midnight I started having labor.
"Unfortunately, that hospital used to be filled with women who either had delivered their babies or were in labor. But that very night, Wednesday 17th there was no single pregnant woman in that hospital.
"Earlier on that Wednesday, when they removed the Pitocin on me; my instinct told me why not go around and check the private wards to see who and who is going to have their babies delivered at night.
"So, I started going around, opening room after room. I opened the first door there was nobody, the second door nobody and when I opened the third one, I saw one woman lying down. She was not pregnant but was lying there holding a book and because of my eye problem, I can't say whether it is a prayer book or a novel. I said sorry and closed the door.
“When they now laid me on top of the delivery bed I was so weak but had a strong spirit. In that room, it was only Dr. Oguannua and Nurse Udeh.
"At some point, Eucharia Udeh climbed on me. I was like what is happening? This is the first time I am putting to bed, I don't know the procedure, and I thought that is how children are being delivered.
"When she came on top of me, she blocked my view from what the doctor was doing. You know when you are in that delivery bed you will raise your two legs and I was so weak to know what they were doing. So the nurse was pressing my stomach.
The next thing, she disappeared and I was left with Dr. Oguannua.
"When I wanted to get up, the doctor shouted, “Lie down, your placenta hasn't come out.”
“I started praying and shouting and they were asking me to push.
"After some time, I felt relieved and the excruciating pains I was having suddenly disappeared and they asked me to get up. Not quite long, Nurse Udeh brought a baby and told me this is your son. I named him Nzubechukwu meaning (Godswill).
“Remember, before that nurse Eucharia Udeh left they asked me to push and I know I pushed. I also pushed another one which I pushed and all the pains disappeared in my body.
"They gave me tears which I later started having problems with, and I was taken back to the doctor. They did sutures and introduced one drug that I used with hot water.”
The Discovery
Image:SaharaReporters.
Recounting how she discovered that Juliet is her daughter, Gloria said that sometime in March 2021, she rented out one of her shops to a female hairdresser. About three months later a girl walked into her shop to inquire about how good the hairdresser was at her job because she wanted to become an apprentice to the woman.
“So I told her that she was not around but could come back later to check for her and she left. One fateful day, I was in my shop when a woman came (Mrs. Agulanna). She called me, madam please come and join us. She said she came to sign an agreement for my daughter to learn hairdressing here. She came with a crate of malt and biscuits.
So, I came out and sat down in front of my shop and she brought a bottle of malt and biscuits. After that day the girl started working.
"Not quite too long, People coming to the shop started saying that this girl resembled me and my son. They said she was talking the way we talk. I was not interested in the talk because I didn't know that I delivered twins in the hospital. As people were talking I said I have a son that people can resemble other people.
“This was going on until one day there were many people who came to fix their hair. Immediately I came out of the shop some people called the girl (Julie) and asked her when did you say you were born. She responded on 18th July 2002. I was like that is the day I gave birth to my son, Nzubechukwu and now people are saying she resembles me.
"I asked her are you sure where you were born? She said at Ezeani New Haven. I said there is no hospital at Ezeani or maternity hospital on Ezeani. She took her phone and called her mother. She asked her where she said she was born and she replied at Ezeani. There were no further questions and I left.
“The next day, she came begging, "Mummy please forgive me, I wasn't born on 18th July. I was born on 14th June." I was like what is going on? She also said that her mother said she was born somewhere in Abakpa.
“So after some time, she started coming close to me. Sometimes if she is not doing anything in their shop, she will come to my shop and we will be discussing and laugh. Thereafter, she started coming close to my family.
"So one day I asked her, do you know your weight at birth, and she said her foster mother told her she weighed 2.2kg but my son Nzubechukwu weighed 3.8kg. I used to tell her stories about my son and how he used to cry when he was tender. She also said her foster mother told her the same thing that she used to cry a lot.
"She started saying many things about her childhood, and she often told her foster mother that she is a twin and that she has a twin brother. That whenever they provoke her she will go and carry her things and say this is not my home, I will go to my house. She will carry her things and be going around in the house. That she had done that more than three times because of how they have been maltreating her.”
“We continued bonding. One day she requested a contact lens because her glass was bad. My husband said, so you have eye problems and she said yes. She said that when she initially told her foster parents that she has eye problems they started quarreling with her until one of her teachers (guidance counselor) called her foster mother to get glasses for her. The teacher, according to her, told her foster mother that her eye problems are hereditary.
"So my family has an eye problem, myopia which runs in my family. I have it, my son has it. So when she saw that my son was wearing contact lenses she requested to have one. So my husband told her to ask my son, Nzubechukwu to take her to his doctor which he did. When they came back they said that the doctor after examining her asked whether they are siblings and that they have the same eyes.
“So, around March this year, the girl started asking her foster parents, look there's one woman in our church. She wrote a text message that I resembled her and even her son, the way they talk, the way they think but I have watched all your family members but I haven’t seen one I resembled. Daddy, who do I resemble in Agulanna's house?
He replied that she resembled one of his sisters that died 20 or 30 years ago, according to my daughter.
"She said that whenever she is in the village people will be asking her who her father is and who her mother is. That person will always look at her like a stranger. She said that her foster mother will always tell her ‘don't worry that is how God created you’. She will tell her that she has a friend that gave birth to five children but four of them look alike but one was so different and that is how God created them.”
DNA test
“So one fateful morning the girl came to my shop and said please I want to do a DNA test with you. She even told her foster mother but she said that not all that glitters is gold. I said alright I will tell my husband when he comes back, that he traveled.
So when my husband returned I told him that this girl came to my shop and requested a DNA test with you.
"On July 7, 2022, the girl came to our house herself and we went for the DNA test. When we got there they asked us questions and said we should sign some documents for them. I signed, and my husband and Juliet gladly signed. After they collected their samples. They asked us to go, that the result will be out in two months.
"In September, two months after the test, my husband called me on the night that the DNA test was out. He said "I Okwudili Michael is the biological father of Juliet because we didn't put Agulanna, we now wrote Juliet Okwudili. So Juliet Okwudili is our biological daughter, 99.99 percent.
The Excitement
“I started shouting that night. I called my people - my mother because she had seen the girl one day. She met her in my shop one of the days she came to Enugu. That very day she said this girl resembled Nzubechukwu my son and embraced and hugged her.
So when the result came I told her, and I told my brothers. In my village, there was joy.
"So my husband now came back on September 10, 2022, Sunday, and said he wanted to tell Juliet first and we called her and told her the result of the DNA test. Before the test, this girl said that if the test comes out negative she will cry for the rest of her life. I am using her words but if it is positive I will cry for joy. When the result came out my husband now told her and she requested that the result should be sent to her and my husband did so.”
Mrs. Agulanna's account
Image:The Punch.
Juliet's foster mother, Mrs. Mariatha Agulanna spoke with The Punch, and here is what she said:
How are you related to the 20-year-old lady who lived with you from birth, but claimed to have found her biological parents in your neighborhood?
"I adopted the girl when she was a week old from the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Imo State branch, on June 21, 2002. The girl was born on June 14, 2002."
Do you have an adoption certificate or document to show that the girl was properly adopted as required by law?
"To the best of my knowledge, yes. The Nigerian Red Cross Society, Imo State branch, issued a document titled, ‘To Whom It May Concern Fostering/Adoption of a Baby Girl from This Home’, dated June 21, 2002. It was signed by the State Secretary, Chief H. C. Mela.
"The document read, ‘This is to confirm that Mr. Lawrence Ukachi Agulanna and Mrs. Mariatha Chidinma Agulanna from Nnarambia in Ahiara, Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, fostered a week-old baby girl from this home. The said baby was born on June 14, 2002. The adoptive parents have been advised to report to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Owerri, Imo State, for the necessary documentation of the child and the court for legal processes and adoption orders of the child. I wish to request that the applicants be given the necessary assistance that they may require."
Do you have documents from the ministry and a court order to back the adoption as contained in the Red Cross Society document?
"Nobody knew that something like this (Juliet finding her biological parents) would come up. I didn’t know that something like this would come up. Even this one (‘To Whom It May Concern’ document) I hid somewhere. I didn’t want her (Juliet) to see it. I didn’t want the lady to have an idea that I adopted her. I hid the document in the village. It was when this incident started unfolding that I went looking for it.
Why didn’t you want to tell her that she was an adopted child?
"I didn’t want to tell her, but now I have told her. She has been the one replying to the man (biological father)."
Did she tell you that she looked like the Okwudilis?
"She had been telling me. She told me people said she looked like them. Then I told her to be careful. If someone resembles another, is that concrete evidence that she is their child? Before they went and had the DNA test, I was concerned. I didn’t know whether the man (Prof Okwudili) wanted to use her for rituals or something else."
Since your foster daughter has finally found her biological parents, how do you want the issue to be resolved?
"What I know is that I didn’t do what they are accusing me of, that I stole the child. So, irrespective of how they want to resolve it, I know I did not do what they accused me of. I did not go to the doctor they accused and I did not enter that hospital. So, I didn’t know anything.
"And I want them to carry out DNA testing with the child and the other child (male twin) they said was born with my daughter so that we’ll know what is happening. Let the son and my daughter go for a DNA test so that I will tell them that they are completely at fault."
Why do you think they are wrong?
"If they are claiming that they had twins, how come the two were born in different months? The lady was born on June 14 and their son was born on July 18, 2002. Mine (Juliet) is the eldest.
"If they are saying she (Mrs. Okwudili) gave birth on July 18 and my own was born on June 14 then, where did they keep her? Although I know that anything is possible in Nigeria and that someone can steal a child and sell it, my own (Juliet) came first."
Nigeria Red Cross Society's reaction
According to SaharaReporters, its
investigations revealed that the Nigeria Red Cross Society, Imo State Branch does not put children up for adoption. The manager of the Red Cross motherless home, Mrs. Ugochukwu Okosisi noted that the document, "To Whom It May Concern" which Mrs. Agulanna is relying on has no reference number.
Mrs. Okosisi said that the former state director in charge of the home within the said 2002 period and who purportedly signed the 'certificate' was notorious for child trafficking.
She said “it could be possible that the woman stole a child somewhere and because she knew the man here and he issued "to whom it may concern" to her. "To Whom It May Concern" is not a proper document for adoption.
"Where is the adoption court order? Where are the documents from the Imo state ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development? This document looks fake and she knows it is fake.”
Ministry of Women Affairs.
SaharaReporters' visit to the Imo State Ministry of Women Affairs revealed that a record of the adoption with the ministry does not exist.
Director, of Child, in the Ministry, Ben Amaefule said, “We don’t have a record of such adoption with the ministry. If the woman claimed that she adopted a child through this ministry, she should produce documents given to her from this ministry and an adoption order from the court."
Previous record
SaharaReporters said that its investigations further revealed that Mrs. Chidimma Agulanna was previously arrested and detained for weeks for her role in a child abduction and trafficking case by the Enugu State Police Command and was later released after she and her accomplices produced the trafficked child.
Madonna Infirmary hospital
SaharaReporters also visited the Madonna Infirmary Hospital, Enugu, and discovered that the hospital has since shut down permanently and a private school is now sited at the location.
Sources told SaharaReporters that the hospital was once shut down by the administration of former Enugu state Governor Chimaroke Nnamani following several reports of child trafficking and deaths of women during childbirth in the facility.
“Late Dr. Ogbuanua was notoriously known for child trafficking. He was even accused of killing women after delivery,” the sources disclosed.
Petitions
Juliet's foster parents, Mr. Lawrence and Mrs. Chidimma Mariatha Agulanna petitioned the Force Intelligence and Investigation Department (FIID) of the Police Force against the Okwudilis.
In the petition, they alleged that Prof. Michael Okwudili and his wife Gloria are inciting people against Maratha and accusing her of stealing their child at birth, her data, and changing her date of birth.
In the petition dated October 25, 2022, made through her lawyer, Ike Njoku Esq, and entitled: “Urgent appeal to you to intervene to avert the lynching of our client, Mrs. Mariatha, Chidinma Agulanna, at the instigation of Mr. & Mrs. Michael Okwudili residing behind AC Drug Thinkers Corner, Old Emene Road, Enugu, Enugu state on the false allegation of child stealing in respect of Miss Juliet Agulanna legally adopted since the year 2002 and now 20 years old,” Mrs. Agulanna claimed that she has, as a result, become an object of public ridicule, odium, and hatred.
Mrs. Agulanna further alleged that the Okwudilis have thoroughly brainwashed her daughter, Juliet who now threatens to call officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on her for stealing her at birth.
The petition said it is “to bring to your attention the matter of a sustained campaign of malicious defamation of character through the spread of injurious falsehood against her person; implanting of injurious falsehood in her adopted child, resulting in hatred by the child, creating disharmony between our client and her child, instigating a potential mob attack on our client and using NAPTIP to harass and Intimidate her, which evil campaign by Mr. & Mrs. Michael Okwudili has been on-going since September 2022.
"On account of the foregoing, our client who lives in the same neighborhood has become an object of caricature, public odium, and hatred," the petition stated.
Prof. Michael and Mrs. Gloria Okwudili have also made a counter-petition to the police asking that police investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of their daughter after birth.
In the petition signed by their lawyer, Odili Emeka Izuchuwku Esq. the couple accuse Mr. and Mrs. Agulanna of child abduction and trafficking.
Prof Okwudili and his wife want to know how their daughter who was born in Enugu was stolen and ended up with Mr and Mrs. Lawrence Agulanna with her date of birth changed without their consent.
"Ever since this issue came to the limelight, Mrs. Mariatha Agulanna and her husband have used all sorts of means including writing a petition to the DIG FCID, Area 10 Gariki Abuja, who came and arrested our clients and took them to Abuja, where they were later released on bail.
"It is on this basis that we earnestly ask for your intervention and in-depth investigation on this matter so that the true paternity of this innocent girl can be determined," they said.
Police intervention
Based on the petitions, the petitioners were summoned to the Force Headquarters, Abuja where they were interrogated.
A police source told SaharaReporters that investigations into the matter have started.
"Focus of the investigation is to find out whether the girl was legitimately adopted by the foster parents and how her parents didn't know that they had a daughter. How was she trafficked to Imo State and who was involved," said the source.
Professor Michael Okwudili and his wife, Gloria Okwudili hail from Ogbunike in the Oyi local government area of Anambra state.
Mr. Lawrence and Mrs. Mariatha Agulanna hail from Ahiara in the Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.
Juliet is a student of Alex Ekwume Federal University, Ikwo, Ebonyi State.
Relationships
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