Police arrest husband, wife for dumping day-old baby in bush

A 26-year-old woman, Mrs Adejoke Ojo, and her husband, Mr Dada Ojo, were arrested by the Ekiti state Police Command over the weekend for dumping their day-old child in the bush.
The duo was picked at their residence, 9 Ikoyi Street in Ikere-Ekiti, following a tip-off by the residents.
However, the husband, who denied complicity in the crime, said the wife’s action was influenced by forces beyond her control.
Speaking to newsmen, Mrs. Ojo said that she gave birth to the baby boy last Wednesday morning in her home after labouring for nearly an hour without anybody around to help her or a midwife to assist in delivering the baby.
The mother of three said it was poverty that led her into the act, adding that she had no money to take care of herself even when she was pregnant, so much that she could not register in any hospital for antenatal and post natal care.
She said that her major source of worry was how to take care of herself and the three children she already had for the man, because her husband was poor.
But her husband said it could not have been poverty that made his wife to dump their baby in the bush.
“I never shied from my responsibilities as the head of the family, even though my wife has been out of job for about three years when her petty business collapsed.
Dada added he had tried to revive his wife’s business but all to no avail, because, according to him, “there are many needs to be met and the little I’m making from my job goes to take care of those needs.
“When I returned home from work in the evening, I observed that she has given birth and asked her about the baby. She simply told me that the baby was dead.”
The couple, who looked haggard and unkempt when they were taken to the police headquarters, were remanded in police custody.
However, the Police Public Relation Officer, Mr Victor Babayemi told newsmen yesterday that the woman and her child have been released to the State Social Welfare Department.