Operatives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command have arrested a woman for dumping her newborn baby at an uncompleted building in Maple, a suburb of Abuja.
CP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, the Commissioner of Police in the FCT, who disclosed this to newsmen over the weekend, said the woman was arrested after the command received a report of the discovery of an abandoned day-old baby.
He said the incident happened on Friday, around 10am when police operatives from Maple division’s juvenile and women care section responded to a distress call and discovered the baby wrapped with a cloth and abandoned behind an uncompleted red brick market in the area.
He said it was in the process that the child was promptly rescued and taken to Mpape Primary Health Care Centre, where medical evaluation confirmed the baby in stable condition.
According to him, following a tip off from the community, the baby’s mother was later identified as Khadija Ali, in which he said she was promptly arrested.
“And during interrogation, she confessed to abandoning the baby, citing her inability to care for the child following her husband’s abandonment,” he said.
The police commissioner, while vehemently condemning such acts of child abandonment, reassured the public of the command’s commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of society.
He, however, said that the rescued baby will be handed over to the department of social welfare for proper care, while the mother will face prosecution according to the provisions of sections 14 and 16 of the Child Rights Act (CRA) 2003 upon the conclusion of investigations.
CP Disu, while appreciating the cooperation and support of members of the public in the incident, called on residents of the FCT to continue to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities or emergency cases to the police via the commands emergency lines on: 08061581938, 08032003913 and 08028940883.
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