The police suspect that the mother might have killed the innocent child to get back at (the child’s) father who broke her heart after promising to marry her and ended up with another woman.
Molly Kilete, Abuja
Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) played host to an unusual incident last week, when 24-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly killing her seven-months-old baby girl.
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The suspect, Odun, from Osun State was said to have strangled the little girl to death. After confirming that the baby was dead, the woman neatly packaged the corpse in a cellophane bag and waited until midnight in her one room apartment and sneaked to a nearby bush where she single-handedly buried the tot.
After the burial, she went back home and lived comfortably pretending as if nothing happened. But unknown to her, somebody in the neighborhood who saw her going out at that ungodly hour of the night with the black cellophane bag, followed her from a distance and watched bury the child.
The neighbour who kept his calm and retired quietly to his home went to her two days after when he could no longer stand the pains to ask for her child. When she could respond to his question, he then confronted her and told her of how he witnessed her evil operation on the fateful day.
At this point, he raised the alarm, which attracted other people in the neighborhood and reported the matter to the police who immediately drafted some detectives to arrest the suspect.
Upon her arrest, she confessed to the crime and took detectives to the exact spot where she buried the baby. The police assisted by some persons, then dug the grave and brought out the corpse and took photographs of her.
The suspect who is now in police custody looks sober and mournful. Although police said she has admitted to committing she, however, denied killing her baby.
Her claim of innocence was punctured by the police who said they found foam on the baby’s mouth and nose. They insisted that the injuries were indicative of the fact that the tot was strangled and suffocated to death. The police also suspected that the mother might have killed the innocent child to get back at her father who broke her heart after promising to marry her and ended up with another woman.
Odun who said she was doing well until she lost her job after she got pregnant for her lover, who promised to marry her, blamed the man for her misfortune. She narrated to Daily Sun, of how the father of her deceased baby deceived her into believing that he was going to marry her but dumped her for another woman after she got pregnant.
Apart from deceiving her with marriage, she held that her lover who is also an indigene of Osun State, duped her of her hard savings with which she used to rent an apartment and furnished it with the promise that they were going to start living as husband and wife.
She said that rather than move in with her like he promised, her lover moved in with his brother. As if is not enough, when she tried to move in with him, she found that another woman had taken her place, thus leaving her with a broken heart.
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“My name is Odun from Osun State. I met my husband in 2016, He operates a lottery outfit and he deceived me into believing that he was going to marry me. I believed him because when I told him that if he was serious then we should start living together and he said he already had a house for us but that it was not furnished. He begged me for assistance and I gave him N40,000, with which he bought the items.
“But when we were to travel to the village for our introduction, I went to the house and I met another woman in the room with him. Since then I have not been happy and I don’t trust him anymore.
“I got pregnant for him sometime in 2017. I did not know until the pregnancy was two months old and I told him about it. We were living happily until I met another woman with him. My heart broke and I refused to trust him again.
“When he noticed that I could no longer trust him, he gave his elder brother who was living with him N20,000, to pay for another house. He returned the remaining N20,000, to me and I added some money and used to get an apartment for myself.
“Whenever he needed money he would ask me. By this time, I did not have money again since I was no longer working. Then, he asked me to go and stay with his mother in Ibadan for me to put to bed but I refused. After much pressure I succumbed because he promised to come over when I put to bed to do the necessary traditional rites for us to become husband and wife.
“I traveled to stay with the mother and I did not like the way she was treating me. It was as if he was giving his mother instructions on how to maltreat me. She really maltreated me until I put to bed safely. But I had to travel to my mother’s place when I could no longer stand the sufferings. I went to his mother’s place around December and left in March to my mum’s and returned to Abuja in June.
“When I came to Abuja, I saw that he was still living with the same woman and he was not happy. He asked me to go back to his mother that we will settle the matter if I go back. I went back only to find that Ade, deceived me and my people that he was coming.
“So in July, I came back to Abuja to see how I can manage and take care of my baby. But his brother wanted me to leave the baby with their mother. I refused and said I can only do that when she’s two or three years old.
“When I came back, I bought a sewing machine with the money my grandma gave me and some items for my baby too and took care of her the best way that I could. I bought her food and I used to give her Amala and other types of food. But on Tuesday, I noticed some rashes on her face and her body was hot. I thought it was because of sun and the hardship we were passing through.
“The second day, when I came back from work, in the night, I discovered that she did not breastfeed the way she used to and because of that I bought one food like that and gave her, but she vomited it. When it was getting to morning time, I woke up and touched her and she wasn’t smiling.
“Then I went to my landlady and begged her to give me phone for me to make a call to her father because Ade took my phones since I refused to go and stay with his mother.
“When he found out it was me, he dropped the call. I called him several times but he did not pick. I did not tell my landlady what was happening to my baby.
“I then called my aunty and asked her for money but she said she did not have but promised to give me later. I made these calls because I wanted to carry her to the hospital and at that point, I did not know what to do again.
“Towards evening, I found that something like foam was coming out from her nose. I already knew she was dead and I did not know who to tell, I did not know who to talk to.
“I did not tell my landlady because the way my husband spoke to me on the phone really hurt me. I was very hurt and I didn’t even know how to tell anybody and it was getting dark in the night.
“I could not sleep with a dead baby. I went out pretending that I was going to buy something and came back to the house. Then in the middle of the night, it came to my mind that may be I should bury her. So, I went and buried her somewhere not too far from our house.
“I put her in a bag and I dug the grave and buried her. But I did not know that one man saw me until he came to my house on the second day. He told me that he saw me and that he saw what I did. That was how he reported the matter to the police and they came to arrest me, took them to where I buried my baby and they dug it out.”
On how she fees at the moment: It is hurting. I did not intentionally kill her. It was because of my husband that I went to bury her all alone because he was not contributing to her up keep. I did not kill my baby.”
The suspect would soon be handed over to the Homicide Section of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), for further investigation and possible prosecution.