Residents of Lafia,capital of Nasarawa state,north central Nigeria, have continued to ponder over the abduction of a new born baby from the postnatal ward of the state-owned Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH) Lafia by unknown woman on Tuesday.
Reacting to the frightening development, Mrs
Wosilat Suleiman,the mother of the baby, said her child was stolen around 6:00a.m on Tuesday, Jan. 9,adding that she delivered the baby boy around 3 a.m through Cesarean Section (CS).
She said:”My relation that was looking after me introduced the strange woman she met at the ward to me when she wanted to go home to pick something.
“She told me that the woman would take care of me and the baby before she would return from the house.
“My relation thought that the woman had a patient at the ward and she trusted her to help us before she return.
“The woman told me that she wanted to bath the baby but disappeared with the child,” she added.
She, therefore, appealed to the relevant authorities to help her find her baby,adding that she was still experiencing pains.
Speaking also on the issue,Dr. Mohammed Salihu, Acting Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the hospital,described the incident as the first of its kind in the history of the health facility.
He wondered how such development could happen in spite of the fact that strict security measures were in place, in the health facility, for the protection of patients and members of staff.
The acting head of the department revealed that the baby was delivered around 3:00a.m and handed over the the relation of the patient before the baby and the mother were transferred to postnatal ward.
According to him, unfortunately, the relation of the patient, entrusted a strange woman to look after her sister, on account that she wanted to pick something from the house and return.
He said that the management of the hospital had reported the matter to the police,adding that investigation had commenced to unfold the circumstances that led to then incident.
“Already, the relation of the mother of the baby has been arrested and some of our staff on duty were invited by the police for questioning,” Salihu explained.
He promised that the management would review the CCTV footage with a view of arresting the culprit.NAN.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.