Spain-based Nigerian lady, Omozele Oseghale, has cried out to the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, (NIDCOM) for help to recover her 9-year old daughter from illegal adoption in Spain.
In the appeal letter, titled: “Appeal for Intervention and Reintegration of a Little Girl of Nigerian Mother Unlawfully/Illegally Adopted in Spain,” in which the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria was copied, and filed by Emmanuel Izibili Esq. her solicitors in Nigeria, Mrs Oseghale claimed her daughter was illegally adopted by a Spanish couple, Gabriela Lopez and Daniel Angel Saenz, in 2012, and since then she had tried to recover her from the couple.
In a sworn affidavit sighted by this paper, which she used in pursuing her case to the Supreme Court, she averred that when she was six months pregnant, she approached the government of Navarra, Spain, for financial support, since she had already a five-year old child, with no visible source of income to support the children.
Narrating her ordeal, Mrs Oseghale said her daughter, Manuela Oseghale, was born on 20 June, 2012 at the Virgen Del Camino Hospital of Pamplona.
She said the government of Navarra got in touch with the hospital (on those date) to know whether her daughter was truly born there.
“Two days later after my daughter was born, I went to the government of Navarra where I was reassured, where I was told that they could take care of my daughter while I recoverrd from from the caeserian section.
“Two months later, I was called upon from the court and I was presented some documents for my signature, without having been duly informed or advised previously of what it entails considering I did not speak Spanish. It was the waiver of my daughter for her adoption.
“A few days later, I had on appointment at the social welfare unit of the district of Txanrea, Pamplona, where I was referred to the municipal service of women care.”
According to her, she later realised that the papers she signed in Spanish were for the adoption of her daughter because of her financial complications that time.
This necessitated her move towards the court.
She said since then she had filed different claims to annul the purported adoption.
But the couple, Gabriela Lopez and Daniel Angel Saenz, lamented that nothing suggested that the arrival in their lives of a little girl of just over three months was going to lead to a tough administrative and judicial battle that has lasted almost four years, a short time later.
They said the little girl was abandoned in the hospital by her biological mother when she was discharged after giving birth to her.
A situation of evident risk that led the provincial administration to agree, first, an urgent foster care and, later, pre-adoptive foster care with the couple from Aoiz.
They said the biological mother of the little girl signed the necessary consent to continue with the procedures and traveled to Norway where she settled temporarily in January 2013.
According to them, the courts agreed, in the first instance, first to pre-adoptive foster care and then to adopt the minor.
But the situation took a 180 degree turn when the biological mother returned to Spain and, after receiving the support of the Social Services of the Pamplona City Council, decided to join the legal battle to try to recover her daughter.
“We don’t know whose fault it was, but who will pay the consequences,” they lamented.
However, Mrs Oseghale got the reprieve in 2016, when the Supreme Court in Spain agreed with her and annulled the adoption.
“I never authorized consciously and informedly. I have won all the claims I have filed until eventually on 21 June, 2016, I won the appeal filed before the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court, highest court in Spain with power to decide cases in all branches of law),” she stressed.
The court in annulling the resolution said that in the first instance, the adoption of minor was invalid, considering the consent of the biological mother was illegally obtained.
The magistrates understood that the mother, who was not assisted by a lawyer until the second instance, did not understand the legal scope of a decision that entailed the total and definitive rupture of the mother-child bond, the court said.
Although the foster care regime is still in force, the justice system thus established a progressive visitation regime for the biological mother.
The court held, first, the biological mother should begin with a weekly visit lasting one hour to the child.
The idea of this new regime is that the little girl returns to her biological family progressively and with the “necessary vigilance of public services.”
The court said these visitations should be maintained for a period of time until the child gets used to the biological mother and her eventual return.
However, in the appeal letter, dated 28 March, 2021, she said it had been four years since the arrangement was put in place and her daughter was still with the foster parents.
“It has imperative to bring this case to your attention and action as all steps taken to reintegration the little girl to her original home proved abortive.
“We look forward to your timely consideration and action, please,” she pleaded with the NIDCOM and the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria.
When asked to react to the letter, Head, Media, Public Relations, of NIDCOM, Abdurahman Balogun, said the commission received it and was studying the matter.
“We received the letter. When we receive such petition, we will profile it and minute on it to the appropriate unit.
“This is a legal issue, it will be forwarded to the legal unit to act on it”, he said.
A source at the Spanish Embassy in Abuja, who didn’t want his name in the print, said the Embassy received the petition. He said the Ambassador would certainly see to the letter before a decision would taken.
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