By Miriam Ndikanwu
The arrival of a new baby into a family usually elicits excitement especially from the father of the new born.
But this is not the case with Mr. Umar Aba, alias Jogodo, whose wife, Blessing, delivered her fifth baby on Adeniran Ogunsanya way, Surulere, Lagos on Saturday 22, during the just concluded local government elections in the state.
When our reporter visited their residence, a make-shift apartment at Imam Dauda Street, off Adeniran Ogunsanya neither Blessing nor the new born child was anywhere close by.
Aba was however sighted at the premises of Moreno-Marinas Lagoon Plc, a construction company situated on the same street, where he works as a labourer. He refused to disclose the location of his baby and the mum.
“My wife and baby are doing well, I took my wife to a psychiatric hospital and my baby is in the hospital,” he said.
When this reporter probed further about the name and location of the hospital, Aba became hysterical and quickly changed his earlier position, saying his wife was taken to a psychiatric hospital in Calabar and the baby is with his sister but refused to disclose her name or location.
He warned his colleagues to steer clear of the discussion going on between him and this reporter.
“This is Lagos and it is my family. It is my personal business and I don’t need any interference from anybody,” he stressed.
A neighbour of the couple who refused to disclose her identity said the mother and baby returned to the house that same Saturday after receiving medical attention at Jalopon hospital.
“The mother and baby came home but we later did not hear much about them after that time again,” she said.
On whether Blessing has close relatives that may know about her whereabouts, she said “I really cannot say, because since she started living here we cannot really identify anyone as her close relatives.”
She explained that the sudden disappearance of Blessing and her baby was not surprising to them as this has always been the practice. After every delivery the mother would disappear with the child only to resurface with the baby a few months later
“This is her fifth baby and each of them came under similar circumstances. But like I said none of us has any clue about the whereabouts of the other children. The story from the father of the children is that they are with his relatives in the north. But mind you when she was in labour this same man was around but refused to take her to the hospital. This has been the practice and because it is a family matter nobody wants to intervene.”
“I was told that the doctor made attempts to take the child to an orphanage before handing him over to the father, but he was turned down because the authority said the parents of the child were alive and was not permitted to take the custody of a child whose parents are alive.”
Another version of the report is that Blessing put up a dramatic display at the orphanage claiming that she would not let go of her baby because the other four were taken from her without any clue about where they are.
“The unfortunate thing about all this is that she never gets to see these children once they are taken away from her by their father who claimed that they are with his relatives somewhere in the northern part of the country.”
Our reporter also learnt that Dr Qodri Adebola, from Jalopon Hospital who assisted Blessing during the delivery of the child, formally reported the incident at the Bode Thomas Divisional Headquarter of the Police before handing the baby and mother to their father.
The Nation had last week exclusively reported about the birth of the baby on the highway by Blessing.
via The Nation
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