Photos: Birth attendant and her father arrested for allegedly stealing a baby in Lagos

65 year old house painter, Jamiu Jimoh pictured above and his hairdresser/ traditional birth attendant daughter, Yetunde Osin, have been arrested by the Lagos state police command for allegedly stealing a baby...

Yetunde who practices local midwifery at her home in the Oyingbo area of the state, had assisted a 28 year old woman simply identified as Stella to give birth on November 9th last year. Yetunde after the delivery, told Stella that her baby had died and presented a dead baby corpse to Stella.

However she was seen with a baby girl within the same period. She eventually gave the baby to her father at Ikorodu after her neighbors began to suspect foul play. Following complains by her neighbors, she and her father were arrested and accused of running a baby trafficking syndicate. She however denied the claim, saying she found the new born baby abandoned at Apapa road, Oyingbo and took a liking to the child and decided to keep the baby.

"On November 9, I was walking along the road in Oyingbo and found a baby on the ground. It was a female child, so I took it. That was the mistake I made. I should have gone to report to the police, but because it was a female baby, I liked her. That was how I took the baby home to Oyingbo. But when I saw how everyone was behaving and gossiping, I had to take the baby to my father in Ikorodu. Even when I could not come to Ikorodu from Oyingbo, my father was there to take care of her. Not long after I left his place on Sunday, someone called me on phone at night, saying my father had been arrested. I am a hairdresser, but I am also a traditional birth attendant. The baby was not delivered at my place. I was not the one that helped the mother of the child deliver the baby. But when the police heard that I was a traditional birth attendant and asked me if I assisted the baby’s mother during delivery, I said yes. But I found the baby under the bridge at Apapa Road in Oyingbo and she has been with me since November"she said

Her father, Jimoh, when interrogated, said he had no idea where his daughter found the baby.

"Osin is not the baby’s mother. She was not pregnant. I do not know the baby’s mother. My daughter has never brought children to me before.”he said