Ogun state Police Command has arrested Joshua Abraham for stealing the placenta of a newborn baby.
The 43-year-old suspect who is a neighbour to the newborn’s grandmother, went to the hospital pretending to be the father of the baby.
Joshua asked the nurses on duty for the placenta of the baby in order to bury it which the unsuspecting medical staff gave him.
However, he ran out of luck when Raliha Zakara (baby’s grandmother) demanded the placenta of her grandson from the nurses. It was at this point the health workers disclosed they had given it to Joshua.
Raliha confronted her neighbour who said he had buried it.
This aroused Raliha’s suspicion and she asked to see the buried placenta. She was furious when Joshua dug out a dead rat. This made her report the incident to security operatives.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, Police spokesperson confirmed the arrest in a statement made available to Journalists.
He said:
“The suspect, who is a neighbour to Raliha, came to the hospital, where Raliha’s daughter was delivered of the baby, and pretended to be the father of the newborn. He demanded the placenta from the nurse on duty and it was given to him.
“On getting the placenta, he took it away on the pretext that he was going to bury it. But when the grandmother got to the hospital and was informed that the suspect had taken away the placenta, she quickly confronted him, but he told the grandmother that he had buried the placenta.
“When the grandmother insisted that she should be taken to where he buried it, it was discovered that he had hidden the placenta but buried a dead rat.”
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“It was discovered that the suspect had once been arrested for defrauding a police officer and a pastor of huge sums of money under the pretext of procuring Canadian visas for them and the case is being prosecuted in court. He took detectives to where he hid the placenta and it was recovered.”
Kenneth Ebrimson, Ogun state Commissioner of Police has called for a thorough investigation into the case.