Police hunt Ogun woman for dumping child outside clinic

The Ogun State Police Command is searching for an unidentified woman who is accused of abandoning an infant in front of Blessed Clinic, located in Oru Ijebu within the Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State.

It was learnt on Saturday that the mother allegedly abandoned the child at around 6:45 a.m. on Friday, in front of the clinic, just a few days after giving birth.

The command informed that the child was likely no more than 40 days old when the mother allegedly abandoned it.

Upon discovering the baby in front of the hospital, it was learnt that the clinic’s owner immediately brought the abandoned child inside for urgent medical care before contacting the Oru Police Division to file a report.

The spokesperson for the state police command, Omolola Odutola, told our correspondent that an investigation had begun to identify those responsible for the incident.

Odutola stated, “The medical doctor in charge of the hospital alerted our division about the child. We have initiated an investigation into the matter, and the child is currently receiving treatment at the hospital.”

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Abandoning newborns on the streets and at dumpsites is not uncommon in Nigeria. In 2022, there was a reported case of a baby girl who could neither speak nor walk, abandoned in front of a shop on Tajudeen Bello Street, Giwa Oke-Aro Road, Ogun State, by her parents.

The child was rejected by the orphanages she was taken to and is currently left helpless in police custody at the Agbado Division, which rescued her from the street.

Similarly, in January 2024, the command arrested a 30-year-old mother, Olubunmi Ajayi, for attempting to drown her five-month-old baby, Imole Anifowose, in the Remo Secondary School river in the Sagamu area of the state.

A man named Olusola Sonaya, who happened to be nearby, was said to have helped to rescue the baby after her mother threw her into the water.