THREE WEEKS OLD BABY ABANDONED AT TEACHING HOSPITAL IN ABAKALIKI
Police in Ebonyi State are investigating the circumstances surrounding a baby abandoned inside a bag in Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA).
The baby was neatly wrapped inside the bag and hidden under a staircase at Female Surgical Ward located at FETHA Two (AE-FUTHA) of the Hospital.
The female baby suspected to be three weeks old was undergoing medical examination when Radio Nigeria visited her at Neo Natal Ward.
An Eyewitness, Pastor Dan Orji, explained that he had gone to fetch water from a tap outside the hospital early in the morning when he suddenly heard the cry of a baby.
“I was coming out of the ward, I heard a baby cry, I look around, I didn’t see any mother, the cry persisted, lo and behold behind the staircase was a Backo bag, I peeped into the bag and I saw a baby struggling, a beautiful baby girl,” Pastor Orji narrated.
Pastor Orji wondered how the person, who abandoned the baby under the staircase, beat the eagle eyes of security men who were always at the entrance of the Female Surgical Ward.
“I didn’t know how she beat the security men, may be all these single ladies but she did not want to kill the baby that was why she brought her here,” the cleric said.
The Public Relations Officer of AE-FUTHA, Mr. Uzodinma Oji, said the management was doing everything possible to save the life of the baby by ensuring proper medical care and dismissed insinuations that she may have been a victim of trafficking by a staff of the Hospital.
“No it’s out of that, we don’t have such records as in any baby missing from the hospital and it has never happened. We have done necessary investigations, may be I don’t know, may be someone came and dumped the baby in the hospital. The baby was not delivered in the hospital,” Mr. Oji explained.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ebonyi State, Mrs. Loveth Odah, described the incident as shocking, noting that the command had commenced investigation into the matter.
“We have not found someone, you know hospital is like a market place, a lot of movement, a lot of people coming in and going out but investigations have commenced,” Mrs. Odah said.
Mr. Donatus Owo, who is the Chief Press Secretary to the wife of the State Governor, Mrs. Rachael Umahi, said she frowned at the decision of the mother of the child and called on Child Welfare Department of the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Development to collaborate with other agencies to ensure that the baby was given adequate care.
AMECHI ODO