BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
An unknown mother who reportedly gave birth to a baby boy on December 2, 2022 in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, has abandoned her baby boy inside the bush.
The newborn baby was left in the cold where he was exposed to hunger, scorching sun and the possibility of attack by wild animals and pests in the bush at Centenary City, Abakaliki.
However, Luck smiled on the abandoned baby as a woman police identified as Sergeant Charity Agwu, attached to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abakaliki discovered and picked it up.
Agwu was said to be on board a motorbike to buy food when she suddenly heard the cry of the baby from a nearby bush. She approached the scene and spotted him.
The woman police expressed worries that the baby was forcefully taken away from her, saying that the Commissioner for Women Affairs in the state, Mrs. Chinwe Okah, ordered that she should not be allowed to see or know the whereabouts of the baby anymore.
“On that fateful day, I was on night duty, so at about 5:50pm, I went out on my bike to buy food. After the first roundabout at the Centenary City, I don’t know what told me to look by the side of the gutter. There, I saw a parcel-like object shaking and heard the voice of a newborn baby crying. Being a mother and a security agent, I was forced to stop the bike and found out the true situation of things there. Lo and behold, it was a handsome baby boy shabbily dressed and abandoned.
“When I carried the baby, he cried the most. I was in my full Police camouflage uniform that Friday. So, people gathered there in surprise. After some time, I told the bike man to take me to the Central Police Station. On getting there, the person in charge of Juvenile Welfare said that she did not know where to keep the baby because he is too tender because he was about a week old then.
“I then sponsored the circumcision of the baby the following Sunday. So, when they complained of not having where to keep him, I told them to make an official entry of him in my name so that I can go home with him and take care of him pending when anyone brings a report of a missing baby. I wanted to nurse that baby. I know God has a purpose of allowing me to be the person to pick him.
“So, the summary is that the following Monday, the baby was taken to the Ministry of Women Affairs and they took him to the motherless baby’s home.
“Surprisingly, days ago, I went there to see the baby and they said that the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Chinwe Okah, ordered that I should not be allowed to see that baby again or know his whereabouts, that I am not the biological mother,” Agwu narrated.
When contacted for reaction, the Commissioner for Women Affairs simply responded to The Point through text message with a question, “Who reported it to you?”
