New Telegraph

After New Telegraph report, deformed baby gets lifeline

Makinde offers mother job

A baby, who was locked up and starved for 14 days by his father so that he could die, has been rescued by the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. The Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN) Secretary, Ebenezer Omejalile, said helpline from the Oyo State government and other individuals started after the exclusive report of the baby’s ordeal in the hands of his father and grandmother by the New Telegraph Newspaper.

The baby’s mother, Ronke, cried out to members of the public, seeking help for her baby. She had narrated how her husband, Bolarinwa, locked up their four-month-old baby for 14 days without food, hoping he would die. Ronke said her husband did this because the baby was born deformed.

The baby was not only locked up for 14 days, the mother was not allowed to bathe him in those days. She alleged that her husband’s plan was for the baby to die because he was born without arms, but the baby miraculously survived. The baby is her third child, while other children were born without deformities. Ronke, who felt that the life of her baby was still being threatened by his father, ran to ACVPN, seeking help. Speaking on the latest development, Omejalile said: “According to reports reaching us, it was due to the New Telegraph’s publication that help came.

We learnt that the Minister of Women Affairs (Mrs. Paulen Taken), assisted the baby’s mother with a token of N100,000 and also we learnt that the Oyo State government has employed her into the Oyo State Civil Service Commission.

“We also heard that one of our partners, Femi Ladiga, based in the UK, has also rendered some assistance and promised to do more for her. Right now, the baby and mother are safe, while Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are preparing to prosecute the father for attempted murder of his child. “The child was abandoned for 14 days and locked up. He was given poisonous substances including kerosene, but God didn’t allow him to die.” Ronke had said that she gave birth to the baby boy without hands. She said: “My husband and my mother-in-law refused to show him love.

They tried to kill him by giving him a lot of poisonous things, but all proved abortive. The baby didn’t die. And they went ahead and locked him in a room for 14 days with the hope that he would die, but God proved Himself in his life. “Since I decided to take care of the baby, my husband has been misbehaving towards me. I stopped lactating after they took him away from me. Up till now, the baby has been taking formula without any financial support from his dad.

They didn’t do the naming ceremony for him and they called him a monster. “We’re legally married. He left home after beating me up. He left without our two children because I refused to comply and agree to what they wanted to do to the baby. He’s a zoologist.

“I used to work with a microfinance bank, and before I got the job, my husband signed as a guarantor for me. But because of this issue, he went there to tell them that he was no longer standing as a guarantor for me. I don’t mind losing the job because I need to be around full time to take care of my baby. My bank job was tasking and time consuming.”

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