High court judge breaks down as DNA confirms he's not biological father of three kids

Anthony Okorodas

 A Delta State High Court judge, Anthony Okorodas, has disclosed that DNA tests have recently revealed that he is not the biological father of three children from his marriage with his former wife.

 

Mr Okorodas, who was appointed a judge in 2018, disclosed this in a statement which he issued on Thursday, January 28.

The judge in the statement which only circulated online on Monday, said his former wife, Celia, walked away from the marriage when the youngest child, now 17 years old, was just six.

Mr Okorodas described the development as traumatic, especially as he and his current wife had been wholly responsible for the well-being and the education of the three children, two of whom are university undergraduates, since their mother walked away 11 years ago.

Mr Okorodas, who noted that he had had four children with his current wife, said he first got information from an anonymous source indicating that the three children were not his during the COVID-19 lockdown in April 2020.

He, however, said he was only able to confirm the claim to be true through the DNA test in August 2020.

He stated, “I have taken the decision to address the press in respect of certain traumatic developments that have arisen between me and my ex-wife, Barrister Celia Juliet Ototo of the Ototo Family of Ovom in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

“It is now nearly 11 years since our separation and divorce. This press statement is important in order to prevent damaging speculations, half-truths and outright lies from persons who may want to cash in on the tragedy that has befallen my home.

How my mother sold my baby

The suspects. Inset: baby and mother. Credit: Punch

 Seventeen-year-old Blessing Godspower,  on Wednesday narrated how her mother sold her (Godspower) eight-month-old baby.

The mother, Onyinyechi Nwabueze, 38, was paraded by the police at the  ‘A’ Division of the Plateau State Police Command.

Policemen from the division, led by the Divisional Police Officer, Mr. Victor Dimkpa, a Chief Superintendent of Police, had rescued the baby, Chiamaka, in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

The story was exclusively reported by PUNCH Metro on Friday.

Blessing, who was staying with her mother at Rukuba Road area of Jos North, was allegedly put in the family way by her boyfriend.

After Chiamaka was delivered, Godspower’s mother, who was not comfortable with the development, allegedly decided to get rid of the baby.

According to Blessing, on July 19, her mother sent her on a phony errand in order to effect the “diabolical” act.

She said, “My mother sent me on an errand, but when I came back I asked for my baby and my mother asked, ‘which baby?’ She feigned ignorance and at that point I started crying and reported the incident to the Police.”

Police Commissioner, Mr. Chris Olakpe said, “After the mother sent her daughter away, she (Nwabueze) stopped a tricycle and took the baby to the first receiver, one Eucharia Anyaegbu. Anyaegbu transferred the baby to the second receiver, Rita Maduako, who finally sold the baby to 53-year-old unmarried woman, Grace Nnadozie.”

Nnadozie, however, told our correspondent that after she applied to an orphanage home for a child without any result for the past two years, she sought Anyaegbu’s help.

She said  she gave N500,000 to Anyaegbu for the baby. Anyaegbu gave N350, 000 to Maduako.  Maduako was to give N200,000 to the baby’s grandmother.

 

But Nwabueze denied that she sold the baby.  She said her daughter was very wayward, so she decided to give the baby out to somebody else who would take proper care of her.

She said, “How can I sell my granddaughter. My daughter is not capable of taking care of the baby and I decided to give her to somebody who will take proper care of her.”

Nwabueze explained that she lost her husband in 2007 and since then, she and the six children she had with him, had been finding things difficult.

- Punch

 

 

iPhone app saves girl

Hollie was diagnosed with viral meningitis and received treatment within 20 minutes of showing symptoms thanks to her mother's quick actions. Image:Daily Mail

 

A girl of three was saved from meningitis thanks to an iPhone app.

According to The Sun, UK, Hollie Weeks suffered from headaches, severe vomiting and a stiff neck.

Worried mum Claire checked her symptoms on a programme she had downloaded on her phone — and called an ambulance straight away.

Medics, who treated her within 20 minutes of Claire raising the alarm, said her quick action saved the girl’s life.

Claire, 36, said: “I cannot thank the hospital staff enough as they helped save her life.”

Hollie, who suffered a stroke down her right side and lost her speech, spent weeks in hospital after falling ill during a family holiday on April 29.

She is now fighting back to health and has regained most of her movement, although she still has coordination trouble with her right hand.

Hollie, from Bristol, struggles to concentrate for long periods and tires easily, but the family are hoping that before the end of the year she will no longer need the steroids she is on.

Recounting her ordeal, Claire said: “Hollie was fine on holiday but then she woke up with heavy, horrendous vomiting. She had a really bad headache but no rash and no temperature.

"I went on my iPhone symptom checker from Meningitis Trust because something just didn't sit right. I had a feeling in my gut.

"I went through her symptoms — headache, vomiting and stiff neck — and they were on the app checklist so I decided I wouldn't take a chance and called an ambulance.

“The doctors said she was an hour away from not pulling through. She’s made a remarkable recovery.

“Hollie is a little fighter and is doing well learning to talk and walk with physiotherapy.”

Claire also told how the tragic death of a girl at Hollie’s sister’s school played a part in saving her daughter’s life.

Kelsey Smart died after being struck down by meningitis and septicaemia. A campaign launched by the girl’s parents Hannah and James in memory of Kelsey for Meningitis UK prompted Claire to download the free app.

'I’m so sorry'- mom who rejected U.S. Paralympic star at birth

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US Swimming sensation, Jessica Long. Images: Daily Mail

The biological parents of the Paralympic swimming sensation, Jessica Long who won five gold medals at the London 2o12 event have shown up, following her victory and celebration.

The Siberian parents rejected heroic Jessica Long as a new born baby.


Jessica, during her first swimming lesson

Until a few days ago they had no idea that the 20-year-old record-breaking swimmer was the disabled child they gave up to an orphanage as teenage parents.

Her biological Russian family had even watched her on TV at the 2012 Paralympics without knowing who she was.

Jessica was adopted aged one by American couple Beth and Steve Long from an orphanage in Bratsk, some 2,350 miles east of Moscow, and she grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.

Born without fibulas, ankles, heels, and most of bones in her feet, Jessica's lower legs were amputated when she was just 18 months old and she soon learned to walk with prostheses.



Jessica displaying her medal



Her adoptive parents showered her with love and enabled her to reach remarkable heights, she has become one of the United States' most inspirational sportswomen having won a dozen gold medals in three Paralympics.

After her latest clutch of golds in London, Russian journalists tracked down the Siberian parents Natalya and Oleg Valtyshev of Jessica Long, who on Friday was one of the Olympian and Paralympian stars hosted at a White House reception by President Barack Obama.




'I got scared': Jessica's biological mom, Tatiana 

Deeply emotional, Natalia, now 38, Jessica's real mother, stumbled as she tried to find the words to explain on Russian television how she felt two decades ago, at the age of 18, after giving birth to a seriously disabled daughter, reported The Siberian Times.

'I feel so sorry,' she said. 'At that time - there was some fear, I got scared. I had to leave her behind. But I did think that I would take her back.

'Of course I was against leaving her in the hospital but because of the circumstances we had to do so. In my heart I did want to take her home, and thought I would take her back later.'




Winner: Jessica Long puts her prosthetic legs back on
after winning the women's 100m Freestyle S8 event
during the London 2012 Paralympic Games

She stressed: 'I was alone in Siberia, without my mother and father. Where would I go with her, if I had taken her? Doctors told me to leave her behind - said that I could not help her... I called her Tatiana, after my elder sister.'

Her then boyfriend - now her husband - said the couple felt pressurized by doctors to make the decision to give her up. He was only 17 when she was born, and the couple - who have since had three more children including another disabled daughter, Dasha, 13, born with a similar condition to Jessica, who they care for at their village home.

'What could I have said? I couldn't say anything because I was not ready for this. I was very shocked with the whole thing,' he says now.

'I don't want to say anything bad about the doctors. They said: "The girl has deformities and you are young, it's going to be hard".'




Adoptive dad: Steve Long raised Jessica to grow up a
happy child and later develop her skills and shine on t
he world stage

He recalls that 'of course' he and Natalia wanted to take little Tatiana (now Jessica) home, but seemed to find recalling this moment too painful to find words to explain it fully.

He did, though, express his deep pride over Jessica's life and achievements in America, and very much wishes to meet a daughter he only even saw for a few minutes in the maternity hospital.

'Of course I'm happy that we found her, glad for her and I am proud. And of course I want to meet her,' he said.
Jessica's Siberian sister Dasha was born with a similar disability

Jessica Long's mother Natalia, right, and aunt Tatiana, left, after whom she was named at birth.




Adoptive mom: Beth Long raised Jessica as her
daughter in Baltimore, Maryland

Natalia said she was convinced she would be able to go back for Jessica later, despite signing away her parental rights in the days after her baby's birth.

'On 6 July 1993 I gave birth to my second daughter Nastya, and on the 9 July American parents adopted her,' she said.

'Babies are normally kept in the baby orphanage until the age of three, and I was sure nobody would adopt her. I was getting information about my daughter, that she was growing up pretty, that everybody loves her.

'And then I got information that she was being adopted to America.'

That Natalia suffered emotional turmoil over what happened is clear from a story Jessica's real-life sister Nastya - or Anastasia - has told.

When she was eight, Natalia confessed to her that she had an older sister who no longer lived with them. Nastya - now 19 - said her mother was too traumatized to speak about the missing child further.

'I was very surprised. Mama said that she was very beautiful. She said that it was hard for her to talk about it, and I should not ask questions. But sometimes I thought of her. I thought that when I grow older and get a job, maybe I'll find her,' she said.

It emerges that before giving her up Natalia named her Tatiana, after her own sister. Her name was changed to Jessica in the US, but the swimmer's real-life aunt - Tatiana Rusanova, who had watched her in the Paralympics, not knowing her true identity - defended Natalia over giving up her disabled child.

'I want to support my sister. Our lives were difficult. Our fate took us in different directions. Natalia was 15 when she had to go to Irkutsk region. I stayed in Kursk region. We lived a poor life. We had a stepfather. Our mother liked to drink vodka.

'Natalia was like an orphan. There was nobody around to help her. She wrote to us, telling us she had given birth to a disabled baby girl. We worried about her. We did not hope for anything good.'

Jessica's feelings on the discovery of her Siberian family are not known, but she has been quoted saying: 'I would like to go to Russia just after the Paralympics to find my Mom. I don't know anything about her besides the fact that her name is Natalia and she was 16 when she left me in the Irkutsk orphanage.

'I'm not angry with her. I just want to meet her. I think we have a lot in common. I know that one day I will have a family and I will have kids, and you know what, I would like to call my daughter Natalia, the name of my Russian mother who gave birth to me.'

At the weekend she Tweeted: 'Thank you for all the love and support from Russia!'

But it is not known if this relates to the discovery of her family or something else.

She has spoken frequently about her Russian background once saying: 'Who would have ever imagined that a girl with a "disability" from an orphanage in Siberia would be where I am today? I'm living proof that you can accomplish your dreams, no matter how great or small.'



Proud father: Jessica Long's biological father Oleg

Mum of identical quadruplets adopts queer approach to distinguish them

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The mother of identical quadruplet boys have shaved numbers into their hair to help teachers and classmates tell them apart.

Mum Tan Chaoyun, of Shenzen in China’s Guangdong Province, shaved the six-year-olds’ heads with the numbers one to four.

She took the drastic step before they started elementary school because she was worried the boys would get mixed up.

“My sons are identical, even to me,” said Tan who reckons the only difference between them is the shape of their eyelids.

“I could only tell the difference between them by having different ankle tags on them before they turned 18 months old.

“Even now, their father can’t tell which one is which.

"Sometimes he punishes the second one for something the third one has done.”