Date: 2017-08-22

There was traffic gridlock yesterday as traders and passers-by stopped over to catch a glimpse of a newborn allegedly dumped inside Asa river, Unity road, Ilorin the Kwara State capital, by a commercial sex worker.

When news reporters visited the scene around 9am tears freely rolled down the faces of most of the sympathisers as they watched the lifeless body of the baby floating on the surface of water with the umbilical cord hooked to a grass at the river bank.

Some of the bystanders who were raining curses on the perpetrator said the baby may have been dumped by one of the commercial sex workers at Coca-Cola road. A woman who simply identified herself as Mrs. Titilayo said, "I can't believe this is happening, what was the woman be thinking of. A baby you carried in your womb for nine months, if you look very well, you will notice the child is not deformed in any way, God will punish that woman," she said.

Also, Ireola Oguniyi who disclosed that her sister had been looking for a child for 11 years expressed shock over the incident.

"This is shocking, I can't believe my eyes. At first, I thought my friend was joking when she called me to come and see it. Some people do not have the fear of God in them. When many women are looking for children, another woman has decided to dump hers in the river."

Also, a resident of the area who pleaded anonymity informed this medium that the baby may have been dumped around 4:am before people trooped out for their daily activities.

According to her, it has become a reoccurring decimal for people to wake up and find new born dumped inside the river. Also, another onlooker, Foluke Adeyemi, who was noticed crying profusely, described the perpetrator as wicked.

"The mother is wicked; she may have done this in order to conceal the secret that she is pregnant to her parents or customers who feed on her body. This is the 27th year my sister had been married without a child; I wished the mother could give the baby to my sister."

However, some of the sympathisers berated officers of the state Fire Service who visited the scene for throwing condemned tyre at the floating lifeless baby instead of looking for other means to evacuate it.

"We were happy to see men of the state Fire Service at the scene of the incident and we had thought that they would help in removing the dead baby, so that proper thing could be done. They however surprised us by throwing denounced tyre at the lifeless baby so that it can flow with the water. What they did was wrong as the baby deserves to be buried," a commercial motorcyclist, Lukman Abdulkareem said.

Meanwhile, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ajayi Okasanmi who confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with this medium, added that some officers were deployed to the scene upon getting information.

"The information I got was that it was not a complete baby, it was a foetus, and probably dumped by a prostitute. The police and fire service were there but they were only able to evacuate the placenta which was washed away by water.

"One of those sex workers at the Coca-cola road may have perpetrated the act according to the information we got," he said.

However when our reporter asked to speak with some commercial sex workers in the area, they declined comment and even threatened to pour water on him.