Health workers and patients at the Osun State General Hospital, Osogbo were left confused on Friday when a nursing mother, Mrs. Grace Adipe, allegedly abandoned her three-day-old baby in the hospital.
The hospital community was taken aback as the news of the abandonment spread.
A woman, Adijat Bamijoko, told NAN that she was in the hospital to assist a patient when the incident occurred on Thursday, and wondered “how a nursing mother could abandon her child.
“Although, I do not know the woman, but one wonders why she should abandon her baby in the hospital where Gov. Rauf Aregbesola had made medication free for all,” she said.
Other people who expressed surprise over the incident, called on the hospital’s management to ensure that the fleeing mother was brought back to care for her baby.
Search team, including government officials and law enforcement agents had failed in their effort to find the woman.
The Osun Commissioner for Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs. Mofolake Adegboyega, said in a statement that efforts to contact the woman by the hospital authorities were yet to yield results.
Adegboyega called Adipe’s relations and members of the public to be vigilant on the whereabouts of the woman.
She urged members of the public to consider the innocence and future of the child and help in efforts to find the mother and her relations.
The commissioner said that any information about Adipe’s whereabouts should be directed to the nearest police station or the Director of Social Welfare in the ministry, Mrs. Grace Adegoke.
(NAN)