A 20-year-old woman has allegedly dumped her new-born baby boy in a pit toilet in Anambra State, South-east Nigeria.
The suspect, Chidinma Nwaedoka, was said to have intentionally carried out the act on Sunday in Otuocha, a community in Anambra East Local Government Area of the state.
Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, a media aide to the Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare in the state, Ify Obinabo, disclosed this in a statement Tuesday.
Ms Ikeanyionwu said the baby had been rescued from the pit toilet, which was still under construction at the time of the incident.
Ms Nwaedoka, the suspect, hails from Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, another state in the South-east.
How the baby was rescued
In a video clip attached to the statement, Esther Omesi, a farmer and a friend to the suspect, told Mrs Obinabo that the suspect, who was pregnant, had requested to stay at her place for a few days because of a farming job she got.
Mrs Omesi said, after granting her request, the suspect told her on Sunday that she had been having stomach upset and, consequently, went to her pit toilet ostensibly to ease herself, but spent a lot of time at the pit.
“After some time, she came out with blood dripping out of her body. I asked her what happened to her and she told me it looked like her baby shifted. I then called a nurse and told her that I don’t know what was happening to my guest.
“The nurse checked her and said there was no longer a baby in her stomach. I felt the baby probably died. She (the suspect) then said she wanted to leave today (Tuesday) to tell her village people what happened,” she narrated in Igbo language.
“So later today (on Tuesday) when I got to the pit toilet, which was uncovered, I heard a cry like that of a baby. I was surprised. I called my niece whom I stay with to check the pit to ascertain what cried out. I then peeped into the pit and saw it was a baby and began to shout for help,” Mrs Omesi stated.
She said people gathered and helped to rescue the baby from the pit, adding that the suspect, on interrogation, admitted that she dumped the baby in the pit.
Commissioner’s intervention
Ms Ikeanyionwu said Mrs Obinabo, the commissioner, quickly intervened when her attention was drawn to the incident.
Mrs Obinabo immediately took the newborn to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Amaku, Awka for treatment and subsequently arrested the suspect.
The commissioner, according to the statement, decried the rising rate of crime among women in the state and maintained that the latest suspect would not go unpunished.
She stressed that the administration of Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has zero tolerance for such “inhuman and dastardly act” and assured that her ministry would handle the case appropriately.
