Ondo State Police Command on Sunday said two of the mortuary attendants at the Ondo State Specialist Hospital, Akure, have been arrested over the missing corpse of a newborn baby deposited at the morgue.
Confirming the arrest, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Femi Joseph, said the two men had been assisting the command in its bid to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the baby who was removed from her mother womb after she gave up during childbirth.
Joseph said, “we are investigating the matter and I can confirm to you that two of the attendants have been arrested and interrogated and they are helping the police in their investigation.
“We will keep you informed on the outcome of the investigation as the two men have been giving useful information which will reveal the whereabouts of the corpse of the baby and the placenta.”
It was gathered that the father of the baby, Femi Owonidaun, had on May 15, deposited the corpses of his newborn baby and his wife, Nike Owonidaun, who died at the Police Clinic during childbirth at the State Hospital in Akure.
However, Owonidaun discovered that only the body of her late wife was still at the hospital while the Owonidaun’s baby was missing at the state Specialist hospital mortuary in Akure when they went to retrieve the corpses for burial on Saturday.
Speaking, the father of the baby, said “after the death of my wife, I took the corpse, the baby and the placenta to the state Specialist Hospital.
“They took the record of the deceased at the mortuary. When we now came to the mortuary to pick the corpses for burial, the mortuary attendant could not produce the corpse of the baby and the placenta.”
“After washing the corpse of my wife, they put her in the casket without the baby and the placenta. We now asked for the corpse of the baby and the placenta.
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“They now asked me if I want to see the corpses of both my wife, the baby, and the placenta. They asked if I wasn’t afraid of the ghost of the deaths?
“We insisted that we wanted to see the remains of the baby because we cannot just leave him like that. We want to wrap him with a white cloth and give him a decent burial like his mother.”
“When we insisted, we now opened the casket only to find only my wife. It was at this point that we raised the alarm and staged a protest that they must produce both the baby’s corpse and placenta.”
“The state Commissioner of Health came here, checked the record and confirmed that we brought the woman, her son, and placenta.”
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Wahab Adegbenro, said the matter has been referred to the State Police Command for investigation.
Adegbenro said the mortuary attendants who were on duty when the corpses were brought in had been arrested and handed over to the Police for necessary investigation.
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