A Child rights activist, Amb. Wale Ojo-Lanre, has slammed a lawsuit on the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, for allegedly involving an underage girl in his political rally in Lagos state.
NAN reports that he demanded for N50 millin (Fifty Million Naira) in damages in the originating motion on notice filed on October 27 before a family court in Ikeja High Court.
Ojo-Lanre joined the Labour Party, Queen (mother of the underage), Federal Republic of Nigeria and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) as respondents in the suit marked ID/6332GCM/2022.
The petitioner is seeking an award of N50 million damages against the first, second and third respondents for the violation of the child rights of the underage girl-child.
According to him, it is illegal, misleading, unlawful, exploitative and abusive for the presidential candidate to post the picture and video of the toddler via his Twitter handle dated October 2 to refer to her as “a poster child.”
He said, “The first defendant allowed participation and usage of a toddler in an adult political rally, which took place on the street of Lagos on October 1.
“This is contrary to Sections 29 and 33 of the Child Rights Act of Lagos State and Article 36 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Children, 1981.
“We seek an order for the first and second respondents to delete their respective tweets and several other posts on their social media accounts in reference to the underage girl-child.
“We also seek an order mandating the fourth and fifth respondents to withdraw the toddler from the care and custody of the third respondent.
“We are seeking court order to foster the child to any welfare home under the accreditation and supervision of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs or other appropriate authorities for proper care, education, protection and upbringing until she turns 18 years.
“In addition, we seek an order to disqualify the second respondent from participating in the 2023 presidential election for condoning, adopting, encouraging and allowing the usage of the toddler for his rally.”
The activist also begged the court to bar the first, second and third respondents from uploading, circulating and printing the picture of the toddler both online and offline.
Meanwhile, a date for hearing has not been fixed.
