(By Paul OrudeBAUCHI)
Residents of Gwallameji, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis, woke up Tuesday morning to a shocking discovery: the corpse of a newborn baby boy in a local refuse dump.
The was found wrapped in a cloth placed inside a polythene bag dumped at a refuse by the road.
Residents were overheard lamenting and cursing the as-yet unknown perpetrator of the act.
Some wondered why a woman would carry a pregnancy for nine months only to give birth and then throw the child away.
“This is an act of wickedness. How can someone do this when several people are looking for children?” a woman wondered.
Sa’adatu Usman, a resident of Gwalameji, said she was awoken from sleep by voices of people talking outside her window and was forced to come out only to see the lifeless body of the infant in the refuse dump.
“I saw the baby lying there on the refuse dump lifeless.
“This is not fair, honestly. How can a woman bear a pregnancy for nine months only to give birth and throw him away at a refuse dump? Why won’t she keep the baby and train him? Or why won’t she give the baby out to those who are in need?
“Better still, the mother of this baby would have wrapped him in a clean cloth and kept him safely in a place where people can pick him and take him to either the motherless babies’ home. This is inhumane,” she stated.
At the scene Gwalameji community leader Hassan Ibrahim told newsmen that he was bitter about the development, describing it as a “disaster”. He said he had contacted the Police regarding the matter.
“I was still sleeping at home when someone called me on the phone that they had seen the corpse of a new born bay at a refuse dump site behind one house by the road in Gwallameji.
“So I rushed to the scene and I have seen it for myself and have contacted the DPO (Divisional Police Officer, Yelwa Divisional Headquarters) so that they can come and take the corpse and know what to do with it.
“I was bitter when I saw it because this is a disaster. My heart is still bitter because this is not the first time this is happening in this area.”
Hassan called on residents to be vigilant of women who they know are pregnant and cannot account for the babies. He alleged that the perpetrator of the crime may have come from a distant place to dump the baby there.
“I want to call on residents of Gwallameji to be more vigilant and monitor people in the area so that when a woman who they know to be pregnant is suddenly without it and cannot account for the baby, they should raise an alarm.
“The woman that did this would be someone who came from a far place and dumped this baby here in this refuse dump site and this has become a problem here for us.”
Hassan recalled that five years ago a similar incident had occured where a woman, who was later arrested, had given birth to a baby at a different location, but had dumped it in Gwallameji.
“If people living in Gwallameji will be more vigilant, cases like this will be reduced, because if a pregnant woman cannot account for the baby or the pregnancy, then it means she gave birth and killed the child,” Hassan said.