Police arrest woman for burying her baby alive

The Mabushi Police Division at weekend arrested a 29 year-old mother of two, Gloria Nata, for burying her infant child alive in a popular burial ground in Jahi area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

An eyewitness, Azumi Abubakar, told our reporter that the mother of two had been pregnant and last Friday morning, she was noticed to have started acting strange.

Abubakar said Gloria, who has a two year-old daughter before she gave birth to the boy, was seen running towards the cemetry with a black sack, a bucket, a machete and a shovel but nobody suspected that she was in labour because her stomach was still big.

She said that after about an hour, a woman who was coming back from Mabushi market raised alarm that she saw a woman trying to bury a wailing baby in the burial ground, adding that other women followed the ‘alarmist’ to the burial ground where they also saw Gloria packing sand and covering the ground she had dug.

“At first, it didn’t sink in but suddenly we heard serious wailing by the infant and rushed to her, then held her hand. We immediately saw that the baby was still alive with his umbilical cord intact. He was covered with blood and sand. Sand was covering his head and eyes but we were able to clean him up, cut off his umbilical cord then raised serious alarm,” she said.

City News gathered that the police were called to the scene just as an angry mob was about to lynch Gloria, but she was rescued and taken to the station alongside her baby.

When our reporter visited Mabushi police division, the suspect was seen bleeding and she could only say that she was single and didn’t need another child which was why she buried the boy alive.

She also said the manner she got pregnant was too painful to keep the baby, explaining that when she realized she was pregnant it was too late to abort it hence the decision to bury the baby the moment she gave birth in order to forget all her pains.

She looked weak and could barely talk while her baby was wailing uncontrollably.

When contacted, Chief Superintendent Ayobami Surajudeen confirmed the incident and stated that the woman was about burying her day-old infant when someone who was coming back from the market saw her and raised alarm.

He said the woman who was seriously bleeding has been rushed to Maitama General hospital with her infant for proper care.

He also said that when the woman is certified well by the hospital, she would be charged to court.