It is every woman’s nightmare to have her newly born baby stolen presumably by those that want to have a baby!
Over the years there have been stories of new born babies stolen in hospitals by women pretending to be nurses or just loitering around or by those who stuffed their abdomen with rags to fake pregnancy.
This has made many women to have a phobia of having a baby at the hospital. At least at home you are sure of your child and its gender, that nobody switches your baby for you or gives you dead baby as your own.
Therefore the news that a couple was arrested by the police in Kano State for allegedly stealing a day-old baby only confirms that this crime still happens.
The command’s spokesman, DSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, disclosed this in a statement in Kano on Saturday.
Haruna Kiyawa said one Rabi’u Muhammad, residing in Gayawa quarters, Ungogo Local Government Area of Kano State reported to the police that one of the twins his wife delivered on Sept. 7 at Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital Kano, was missing.
According to the police, on Sept. 8 at about 01;30hrs, one of his newly born male twins was missing, when his sister in-law who was looking after the babies at the corridor of the maternity ward in the hospital slept off.
“She woke up and couldn’t see one of the babies,” he said.
The police launched an investigation that eventually led to the arrest of the culprits.
“Intelligence report led to the arrest of one Maryam Sadiq, 22, and her husband, one Abubakar Sadiq, 50 years, all of Rijiyar Zaki quarters, Kano. The baby was recovered from them in their home.
“During preliminary investigations, Maryam confessed to have taken away the baby from the hospital.
“She said her husband influenced her into committing the crime, as he had been longing for a male child,” he said.
Haruna-Kiyawa further explained that the suspects were said to have organised a party to celebrate the arrival of a male child in their family.
“That triggered doubts and suspicion since their neighbours knew that Maryam was not pregnant,” he said.
He added that the new born baby had already been reunited with his parents.
People that steal new born babies claim that they want to have a child so they disregard the feelings of the biological mothers of the babies because they are wicked and insensitive.
I am surprised at this case because it is usually the woman that initiates and steals a baby without the knowledge of the husband, but in this case the husband wants a male child.
There was a time in Kano one woman went out and brought a new born baby home and told the husband that she had given birth. Since she was not pregnant he reported her to the police.
Stealing of babies is unfortunately popularised by Kannywood where a woman usually connives with the doctor to steal a baby or switch it. And at the end there is no sanction even if the secret is exposed.
Hospitals should be more vigilant, particularly in checking and identifying strangers in nurses’ uniforms, security, e.t.c. loitering in maternity wards.
Mechanism must be put in place for women to have confidence in going to the hospital to have a baby.
New mothers and their relations should be wary of strangers being ‘kind’ to them at maternity wards. Babies are stolen that way by offering to carry the baby while the relation or mother goes to the bathroom or steps out to get something.
It is however absurd to believe that nobody would suspect you of stealing a baby while you were not pregnant to the extent of throwing a party to celebrate having one.
This raises the question of adoption; if you want a child so much why couldn’t you go to an orphanage and adopt? Some people may really want to adopt but our culture does not encourage it as people see the children as not your ‘blood’, so you can’t bring them into your household.
And in the few cases people adopt children found in rubbish dumps, the children are not fully accepted by the family and other relations. They are regarded as outsiders.
In this regard orphans are left to grow up in orphanages and become adults without a family to give them a sense of belonging, which is quite sad.
Some still don’t like to raise their relations’ children. They want a child they can claim as their own.
Where this evil succeeds only God knows the fate of such children raised by people totally unrelated to them, while their biological parents spend the rest of their lives praying and hoping for a miracle of reuniting with their children.
The police should be commended for the quick apprehension of Maryam and her husband Abubakar.
Stealing a human being is not the same as stealing a car for instance as such, people would like to see them given the maximum punishment by the court.
