The Nasarawa State Police Command has detained a female suspect for allegedly abandoning her newborn child in a bush within the Akwanga Local Government Area. The infant, wrapped in a cloth, was found alive on Wednesday near a primary school along AA Koto Street. Concerned residents who discovered the baby immediately alerted the authorities.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Ramhan Nansel, confirmed the arrest, stating that the Commissioner of Police had instructed that the case be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and prosecution.
Nansel said, “The mother of the baby has been identified and arrested. The Commissioner of Police has ordered the transfer of the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Lafia, for thorough investigation and prosecution.”
Reports indicate that the suspect is a final-year National Certificate in Education (NCE) student at the College of Education in Akwanga. This alarming incident has stirred outrage among local residents, many of whom expressed their disbelief and anger at the abandonment.
The case of child abandonment is not isolated. In July, a farmer in Kamba town, Dandi Local Government Area, Kebbi State, rescued a newborn girl who had been buried alive on his farmland. Kabiru Kamba, the farmer, noticed an unusual ridge on his farm and, with the help of some motorcyclists, dug the area. They found the baby, still alive and crying, wrapped in a cloth. The child was later placed under the care of the Dandi Local Government Council, while Kamba and his wife, who had just given birth, took the baby in as their own.
The growing number of such incidents has raised serious concerns over the prevalence of child abandonment across the country.
