The police in Ondo state on Thursday said they were trailing a woman who allegedly tortured her daughter to death and later escaped with her corpse from the state specialist hospital in Akure, the state capital.
The command spokesman, Mr. Femi Joseph, who confirmed the incident to journalists said efforts were on to track the woman in order to know the exact details of the death.
The woman whose identity is yet to be ascertained was said to have rushed her daughter suspected to be about 4 years of age to the Ondo State University Teaching Hospital, Akure Annex for treatment, Wednesday night with marks suspected to be from horsewhip visible on the girl’s body.
According to some members of staff of the hospital, the woman escaped with the child’s corpse which was brought to the Children’s Outpatients Department (COPD) of the hospital shortly after she was told the child had died.
“The woman brought in the girl to the hospital at the children’s emergency ward for treatment. As we tried to attend to her, we noticed that she had maltreated the girl to the point of death.”
“If you see the body of the girl, it was a case of Child Abuse as there were serious marks of beatings all over her. By the time the doctor on duty could rush and attend to her, it was discovered that she even brought the child dead.”
“The doctor had to quickly tell the woman that the young kid she brought to the hospital was dead already. Before you know it, the woman grabbed the girl and ran away from the hospital facility”.
One of the doctors on duty when the incident occurred confirmed the incident noting that the child was brought in dead by the mother.
The doctor who preferred anonymity stated that “Immediately she brought in the child dead to the hospital, we tried to resuscitate her but there was no life again.
“And before we knew it, the woman grabbed the corpse of her child and ran out. All effort to trace her has since proven abortive because we did not know how she just manage to escape, ” the doctor said.
Also, confirming the incident, the Administrative Secretary of the hospital, Dayo Owoseni disclosed that, he heard about the incident the following morning and ” we have called on the doctor on duty to come over and explained what happened to us”
