A 40-year-old woman, Malama Halima, yesterday confessed that she stole a one month-old baby boy from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, to save her marriage. Chief Medical Director of ATBUTH, Dr Mohammed Alkali, who addressed newsmen on the matter said, “I can confirm to you that the stolen baby has re-united with his mother. Probably, the woman who stole the baby capitalized on the time given to visitors and relations of patients to visit, to steal the baby. Henceforth, the hospital’s management will enforce security measures to ensure that such an ugly incident does not repeat itself”.
Narrating her ordeal at the GRA police station in Bauchi, the woman, Malama Halima said, after her divorce, she decided to steal a baby boy in order to save her marriage. She lamented that though she has five daughters, her husband divorced her because she does not have a male child.
Halima added that when she took the baby home, her ex-husband refused to accept the baby, maintaining that he was not the one who fathered the child. She said when he demanded to know where she got the baby from, she had no choice but to confess.
“After I confessed to him, he advised me to return him and it was in the process of returning the baby that I was arrested”, Halima said.
The mother of the stolen baby, Mallama Hauwa, on her part said she gave birth to her baby on September 14th at the teaching hospital, but was yet to be discharged.
“On Monday October 15th, after the nurse on duty administered drugs on me, I went to the baby’s cot and did not see him. I thought that the nurse was attending to him, so I went to meet her, but she said the baby was not with her. It was at that point that we started looking for the baby,” she said.
Also speaking, the baby’s father, Sani Mohammed, a trader said, “We reported the matter at the GRA police station and with the help of Allah and prayers, the woman who stole our baby and her husband returned him to the hospital”.
Greenwich News learnt that when the baby could not be found, the nurse who was on duty was arrested. But chairman of the Bauchi State Nursing and Midwives Association, Alhaji Sagir, has expressed optimism that when investigation is concluded, the nurse on duty would be released.
“The woman who stole the baby has been arrested and the nurse on duty was not implicated in any way. Ours is a respected profession, we are involved in saving human lives, caring for the sick and we are proud of our members,” he said.
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