A 20-year-old woman, Ganiyat Salawudeen, is currently in police
custody after she was arrested for throwing her five-month-old baby
inside a well, where she was residing in her mother’s family house at
Alagolo area, Oja Oba, Ibadan
Ni
gerian tribune reports that, Ganiyat threw the baby, whose name
was given as Timothy Odugbemi, into the well at about 8.30p.m on Monday
November 5, after which she raised the alarm that she could not find her
baby.
After a search by family members and
neighbours, which extended till the following morning, Ganiyat was
reported to have confessed to throwing the baby inside the well after
much prodding. People were said to have rushed towards the well to see
if it was true and it was a shocked crowd which beheld the still body of
the tot when he was brought out of the well.
On
hearing about the incident, the Divisional Crime Officer in charge of
Mapo Division, Mr Bayo Ogundiran, reportedly led a team of detectives to
the scene and arrested the mother, while the baby was taken to Adeoyo
Hospital, Yemetu, where he was confirmed dead. He was thereafter
deposited in the mortuary for autopsy.
Ganiyat said
she could not also explain what made her throw her baby in the well,
expressing the belief that forces greater than her must have overwhelmed
her at that moment.
Narrating how the incident occurred, Ganiyat said:
“On
that day, I bathed the baby in the evening, changed his clothes and we
both went to bed. About 8.30p.m, I rose from the bed, carried the baby
and took him to the back of my room window where the well is situated”.
“A
spirit just came over me and asked me to throw the baby inside the
well. I pushed the planks on the well aside, threw the baby inside and
covered it again”.
After some time, I told the
tenant living in the house that I could not see my baby. He said he saw
me moments before with the baby. I left my residence for my parents’
place at Oniyanrin area and told my mother that I could not find my baby
but she kept asking me where I kept the child.
“The
following morning, many people came and were shouting at me, asking me
where I threw the baby. An elderly man in our family then came to me,
cajoling me to tell him where the baby was. Then I told him that the
baby was in the well. While some people rushed towards the well, others
started beating me with horsewhip, cane and different objects. When the
baby was brought out, he was already dead. A police patrol van came and I
was taken to the police station.”
Ganiyat, who said
she was an apprentice learning fashion designing, disclosed that she
was impregnated by one Kehinde Odugbemi, who was already married, and
that she delivered the baby on June 4. She added that the man could not
be traced until the day of the naming ceremony when he came in the
evening to christen the child. She said Odugbemi also came on June 12 to
give her N1,000, adding that that was the last time she set her eyes on
him.
Ganiyat was said to have given birth to a boy
before the birth of the deceased baby but could not get any man to claim
the child. The boy, who is said to be three years old, is being taken
care of by Ganiyat’s mother.
Source: Nigerian Tribune
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