Posted by 9jabook.com on September 18, 2009 at 11:35pm
Dumped in dirty gutter, now Baby Fashola
The birth of a new baby usually evokes joy in the proud parents who sometimes roll out the drums to celebrate the happy event, especially if the baby is coming after a long wait by the couple following their wedding. Among some families, the celebration may entail them barricading an entire street, especially if they are well-to-do and the baby is the first child of that union.
At such an event, the celebrants and their guests may be seen donning fashionable uniformed wears as is usually the case with Nigerians in the South West who often settle for their trademark Aso ebi. Also a party of this nature can never be complete without abundance of food and assorted drinks with enough music to tease all present to the dancing floor.
Children, the Christian Holy Book says, are blessings from God and therefore should be treasured and treated with care and love. In fact, Jesus Christ, the Biblically acclaimed son of God, had cause to rebuke his disciples for scolding those bringing little children to Him for blessing.
But it will appear that one woman’s bundle of joy is another woman’s burden of pain. For instance, a certain mother somewhere in the sprawling slum community of Tolu in Ajeromo Ifelodun Local Government obviously did not believe in the Biblical statement that a child is a special blessing from God when she decided to dumped her newly born baby rather than celebrate her birth like some happy parents are doing.
In fact, it came as a big shock to some residents in the area when they stumbled on a black polythene bag dumped inside a dirty gutter which on close examination was found to contain a baby girl with a cellotape across its mouth, apparently to prevent it from crying.
A middle age man was the first to recover from the shock and subsequently took the ‘strange package’ to the Tolu Police Station
When Policemen at the station later freed the baby from the bag it was discovered that its umbilical cord had not been cut. According to a Vanguard Metro source, the baby was taken to the nearby Tolu Medical Centre for attention 30 minutes later. The hospital took custody of the child.
Vanguard Metro’s initial efforts to see the baby ran into a brick wall as the Police were not initially forthcoming on its whereabout. A senior Police officer at the Station declined information pertaining to the baby and referred all enquiries to the Police Public Relations Office, Ikeja.
When our reporter visited the Tolu Medical Centre, the Medical Director, Dr. Sodipo Gbolahan, confirmed the story that an abandoned baby was brought to the hospital in the morning by policemen from the Tolu station, with the umbilical cord still intact. He later led Vanguard Metro to the ward where nurses taking care of the baby assured that she was doing well.
The card with which the baby was registered read: Fashola Joy Tolu. According to Dr. Gbolahan, the baby was christened after Fashola because he is doing well as the Governor of Lagos State. Speaking to Vanguard Metro the midwife saddled with the responsibility of taking care of Joy said: “From my own experience as a midwife, the baby was delivered that very day she was thrown away, because we separated the umbilical cord and treated it as usual.
We also pierced her ears and fixed earrings in them. But up till now nobody has come forward to lay claim as the mother”. She also informed that the baby was not on breast milk, which exposes her to risk. She, however, assured that since she was in hospital there was no problem.
But the State Command Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, an Assistant Superintendent of Police(ASP), Chris Onyeisi told Vanguard Metro that Baby Fashola was later transferred to the Juvenile Welfare Centre(JWC) at Alakara, Munshi. Vanguard Metro learnt that she was later taken to an undisclosed orphanage homer.
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