A London High Court on Monday sentenced a Nigerian mom living in London, England to eight months in prison over her failure to return her son back to the U.K from Nigeria as ordered by the court.
According to the prosecutor, Edirin Onogeta-Idogun, 17, from Newham, was tricked to travelled to Nigeria last summer for vacation, and was subsequently held against his will.
The prosecutor further claimed that Edirin is being forced to marry against his will.
Edrin’s parent however denies the prosecutor claims. According to Lydia Erhire, Ediri’s mom, her son’s behaviour and lifestyle are of great concerns for the family. Hence they resolved to send Ediri to Nigeria for a change of environment.
On February 9, a group of Nigerians under the auspices of Respect Nigerians Coalition (RNC) issued a press statement to protest the British press bias coverage and reporting of the story.
According to RNC “Ms Lydia Erhire and his dad, Mr John Idogun considered their options and decided that a new environment where he would concentrate on his studies and reform his behaviour would do him good. They also have behind their minds the fact that gang and knife crime issues have culminated in the death of a number of young black boys and girls in London in recent years.”
The group also hinted that Mr John Idogun, the subject father has obtain a court order - in Nigeria - that made it impossible for Ms Lydia Erhir to bring Ediri back to London.
Nigerians Abroad Live investigation reveals that Mr. John Idogun is a special adviser to the Governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan.
U.k. news agency reports that “The High Court ruled Edirin was a resident of England and was entitled to continue to live there.”
“His removal from England was contrary to the protection order and he was at “significant risk” while in Nigeria, it decided.”
Edirin is a citizen of Nigeria and a United Kingdom resident. He was born in Nigeria but moved to London with his mother when he was ten years old.
As at the time of this report, no words from the Nigeria High Commission in London on impeding diplomatic row and international legal tussle between the two countries.
This is bullshit… Firstly, d boy is a Nigerian citizen not even dual.
Secondly, the UK & mostly western world systems is messed-up. The parents were trying 2 give d best by bringing him back home to face reality b/c most of these teenagers easily engage in drugs & gangs related crime and the system allow it while d parents can hardly do anything about it in London. A change of environment will definitely be the solution for their son to retrace d steps. Any good parents will do it to save their child b/4 it’s 2 late.
How come it is only in Nigeria dat we have a government that will never support or protect their citizens in the world, & we want to earn respect from the world. That’s why we are being treated anyhow b/c the world knows dat we have no government dat can protect us.
The government & high commision were there to represent their citizens but in Nigeria case you are OYO (on your own) they are only to represent their pocket and follow whatever other country say. Very sad.
hi,
the way the story goes.it”s very sad because we africans are not respected in the western world.
why must a british court jail Nigerian mom,over her failure to return child to london.this boy is a Nigerian citizen not even Dual citizen.
any Good parent,will do it”s to protect and save their child from trouble.
Nigerian embassy in London,England.should woke up and restore justice and sanity to save the poor innocent woman,from jail.
april 2011 election,Nigerians oversea phone ur families at home.
tell them to vote against pdp party.this evil party has rule the country since 12 yrs,no change.
economic proublems with no social amenities to help the messes.corruption in still incurable in Nigerian.
so,Nigerians youth should woke up and vote General mahammedu Buhari as president or else no future in Nigeria.
Thanks,Eddy Lord,is a Nigerian musical artist from France.
While the westerners prefer their dogs to children bcos govt is parent and no-matter a child turn to wld be for govt. We africans value our kids bcos they are our pension and the way we train them we find them useful in future. Uk decision was absolutely wrong and needs to be challenged. They shld not ruin african future by expectg us to train our children same way like their own where parent nor teacher is allow to smack hence given children opportunity to behave any how. I salute the courage of this boy s parent for their brilliant decision. Children are better train any where in africa and this is where most shallow thinking Africans are getting it wrong. At the end of their, they wld realise that they dont have children. Bcos what s the importance of kids that are not useful to parent. Most children brought up abroad are in this category bcos of environmt. Child parent shld take solace in that they ve done the best for the boy, whatever they pass through.
This story is very sad and shld not be left unattended to.It’s so comon in this western world that most parents have turned to mere “figure head parents”.They know what they go through as to get a child or children. Being older and experienced in life,parents know better and MUST have the right to educate and impact their life experience to their own kids.This should be an INVIOLABLE RIGHT to all parents and no govt. or body should tamper with this NATURAL RIGHT unless in cases whereby the parent in question is proved to be lacking in mental balance etc. It takes nothing for a child to get out of balance in this western world including here in Rome(where I’ve lived for the past 28 yrs.) where morality is practically inexistent
My own 2nd son derailed and got into the bad boys in the city(Rome) and almost stoped going to school.His behaviour became odd to every 1 including the teachers. I tried to use all kinds of dialog with him, tried to become his good friend and father at the same time,his teachers also tried their best to retrieve him but he’s gone far just in a very short time. Oh! my God. My son !! I slept, I thought of it. The ONLY solution was to let him know what life really was somewhere else. Though he’s born and brought up in Rome untill this age of 15. Exactly like the Uk mom, I and my wife tricked him back to Nigeria, put him in a good missionary school at Owerri just for 7 months…The result ? My son is back to life, now getting ready to enter the university in Uk for an engineering course, come september. The State, I know, has no instruments of correcting a derailing child except to arrest and jail when a real crime comes up as a result…So let every body shout for the release and compensation of the Uk mom. Parents know what they need from their kids and MUST be allowed to use their methods to make their dreams come true. thanks
Well, I thought I should say something about this matter as I see it. It is quite different from the way others see it though, and here I like to point out first that this mum, as I read in the story above, must have been living in the United Kingdom for sometime - she is not new in the UK and should not be to UK’s laws. Yes, we Africans take giving our children moral training from their tender age to be a serious parenting task and, doing this involves issuing out punishment of all sorts, ranging from ordinary scolding to spanking and starving our children. In United Kingdom, all these are not just disallowed they also constitute a species of public nuisance as well as crime.
Now, I want to assume that these were well known to Edhiri parents and formed the reasons why they took him to Nigeria. But it’s also a fact that the authority here in UK will never oppose anyone taking such a step unless an element of real crime has been introduced. This element of crime is what Edhiri parents have failed to tell the author of the story above.
In this case, the element of crime could have been caused by Edhiri’s school teachers noticing his sudden absence from the school without prior notice from his parents. I want us to know that authority here have had a variety of experience whereby a child would be killed by his parents or by some tradition and dumped somewhere. Only an order to produce such a child will prove the truth about him/her .. remember Climbie? It could be Edhiri himself who had launched a come-back fight against his parents, backing himself with different lies; it could be that they were here on asylum and had earlier claimed to be victims of lethal family tradition or of some other home-based dangers.
Whatever it is, if his parents had lawfully returned him to Nigeria, there shouldn’t be any prosecution, and that is what Edhiri parents need to tell this forum.
Nice one Baba Koboko, I read your comment and thought Great!! indeed we have got some reasonable thinking Nigerians. Never mind others that jumped up and start cursing the British Courts and Nigerian Governments.
Yes we like to bring our children in our own way and as far I am aware, there is no British law that seeks to restrain parents from taking their children away from the UK to any country of their choice (especially their home country) provided it is done for legitimate reason.
To the reporter, I think you may need to dig deeper to find out what crime this mother is convicted for!
To other commentors, stop jumping on every band wagon that criticizes the West, you need to ask questions and ascertain what the actual problem was before starting to unleash your criticisms.
I found this rather strange as most parents would send their children home if they felt that they were becoming “difficult” as there is a general belief that the system here has continuously and deliberately failed young black males (as evident from the prison, crime and suicide figures). However, I do understand that it could be interpreted as punishment and sometimes child abuse by the child and other authorities (which is felt do not act in the best interest of the child).