Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), Lafia, was thrown into confusion following the disappearance of a newborn baby from the facility on Tuesday.
The Herald understands that the baby, born at about 3:00 am on Tuesday, was stolen by a yet-to-be-identified woman at the postnatal ward just three hours later.
The mother of the missing baby, Mrs. Wosilat Suleiman, who spoke to journalists at the hospital said her child was stolen around 6:00 am on Tuesday, January 9.
Mrs Suleiman explained that she gave birth to the baby boy through Cesarean Section (CS) around 3:00 am on Tuesday.
“My relation who was taking care of me the delivery wanted to pick up some things from the house, so she introduced a woman to me which am not familiar with, to take care of me pending when she will be back,” she said.
“She told me that the woman will take care of me and the baby before she return from the house.
“My relations who concluded that the woman had a patient at the ward trusted her to help us before she return.
“While at the postnatal ward the woman gave me impression she want to bath the baby and disappeared with him.”
The mother has appealed to the relevant authorities to help her find her baby as she was still going through pain.
Reacting, the management of DASH regretted the incident, saying, “despite the strict security measures put in place in the facility to protect patients and staff, the ugly incident happened.”
The management through Dr. Mohammed Salihu, Acting Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department said it was the first time a thing like this ever happened at the hospital.
He explained that the baby was delivered around 3:00am and handed over the the relations of the patient before they were transferred to postnatal ward.
He added that unfortunately the relations of the patient entrusted a strange woman to look after her sister on account that she wanted to pick something from the house.
He further said that the management had reported the matter to the police immediately and investigation was ongoing to unravel what happened.
“Already the relations of the mother of the baby has been arrested and some of our staff on duty were invited by the police for questioning,” he added.
He therefore promised that the management would review the CCTV footage with a view of arresting the culprit.