By Kenechukwu Obiajuru, Yenagoa
A lifeless body of a new born baby boy was found at a public dustbin in Okaka community, Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on Saturday morning during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise.
The abandoned corpse of the baby was discovered by residents who came out early in the morning to dump debris.
When Orient Daily visited the scene, women were seen laying curses on the unknown mother of the deceased, while others said that she would have given the child to someone that will nurse and nurture him.
One of the women who identified herself as Madam Jane Lagos said that “It will not be well with this woman who abandoned this innocent child here to suffer and die under the cold of the night.”
She said that as a mother, it is devastating to see that a woman carried a baby in her womb for nine months and after the pains of labour, abandoned the child to die.
Also reacting to the incident, the President of Yenagoa Federated Youth Council, Mr. Ineife Perekosifa, attributed the cause of the incident to poor parenting and lack of care by guardians.
Mr. Ineife said “Our campaign as a body has always been strong against teenage pregnancy, which could be one of the possible causes of this incident.
“Our campaign will not stop until we reduce the high rate of teenage pregnancy and other effects of it.”
According to him, “This is the third in just a few weeks, it started in Okutukutu community, then later in Opolo and now it is here in Okaka, a wrong precedent that is now becoming a norm and it is something we won’t take lightly. We will consult with the stakeholders and communicate to the masses our next action.
“We pray that the government of the day will put in place the needed apparatus to curb this menace that has affected the state as a whole.”
Men of the state sanitation authority and other health workers visited the scene severally and left without evacuating the corpse.