Mother Abandons Day-Old Baby in Lagos

An unidentified mother has dumped a day-old baby by the road side in Lagos.

The baby, a male child, was abandoned at a point near Abule Onigbagbo Bus Stop, Ikeja.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the incident occurred on Thursday.

The baby was wrapped with an ankara and left to either be rescued by passersby or die.

He was, however, lucky as some residents of the area saw him around 7.30am and surrounded him, cursing the mother that subjected him to that cruel fate.

The chairman of Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area, Mr. Babatunde Oke, was informed about the presence of an abandoned baby in his council area.

He was said to have reached out to the Supervisory Councillor for Health, Mr.Gbenga Adedeji, who went to the scene with an ambulance. Adedeji reported took the child away.

Abandoned by Parents, Pregnant at 15, Homeless at 16

The Vanguard News Papers is reporting that a baby looked frail and sleepy, crying profusely under the scorching sun. He started vomitting at a time but the mother was without a wrapper to cover him or a handkerchief to clean him up. The nursing mother who claimed to be 16 held her son firmly, although an experienced mother could easily deduce that she was a novice in nursing a baby.

Even traders and passersby could not help but wonder aloud what a girl of her age was doing at that spot under the scorching sun. But as soon as she spotted this reporter, she intensified  gestures that suggested she was there for serious business. ‘’E saanu mi nitori Olorun, a ni’lo owo lati jeun ni...’’(Help me for God’s sake, we need money to feed ourselves…), she appealed in Yoruba Language.

Vanguard Metro’s subsequent  chat with the 16-year-old nursing mother which lasted several hours revealed that she is a product of a broken home and that she got pregnant at the age of 15.  Also, she escaped a rape attempt by some street urchins, popularly called Area Boys based in Oshodi.