The Ministry of Health, Bayelsa State, and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Saturday, said it was not true that a Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Sawyer Wisdom, sold a baby girl delivered in the Survival Hospital located at Igbogene, Yenagoa, at N200,000.
The ministry and FIDA said contrary to the claims of the police that the baby was nowhere to be found, the newborn was being catered for at the Gloryland Children Home, a motherless babies’ facility owned by the state government.
The police earlier said they arrested a doctor and a nurse at Survival Hospital, over an alleged plot to sell a newborn baby to a willing buyer at N200,000.
Speaking in a press conference in Yenagoa, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ayibatonye Owei, said it became important for all the stakeholders in the baby-selling saga to clarify the issues to avoid dragging the ministry in the mud.
Owei said there was no arrangement ab initio between the mother of the baby, Nwachukwu Nnenna and Sawyer, who is the owner of the hospital, to sell the baby.He explained that Nwachukwu came to the hospital demanding to terminate her seven-month-old pregnancy citing financial constraints.
He said Sawyer discouraged her from carrying out the abortion, but opted to cater for and manage her condition until March 2 when she was delivered of a life baby girl.
Owei explained that upon delivery, the mother and her baby were fed by the hospital and was later handed over to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development because Nwachukwu said she could not take care of her.
He said all the documentation for the transfer of the baby was properly done with the consent of the woman and that the newborn was later sent by the ministry to the government-owned motherless babies’ home.
He said the police and other stakeholders went to the child care home to see the baby adding that the reports in the public domain about the matter were not correct.
“It is disheartening that the police created an impression that the baby was missing. It is also wrong to say that a doctor, who is a permanent secretary in our ministry connived to sell the baby.
“The baby is not missing. The baby is in the motherless baby home and there was no attempt whatsoever from the beginning to sell her,” he said.
Also absolving himself of wrongdoing, Sawyer, said before he contacted the ministry to take the baby, the woman signed an undertaking to that effect.
“The patient signed an undertaking to transfer the baby to the government since she could not care for the baby,” he said.
Speaking on the matter, the Chairman of FIDA, Dise Ogbise-Erhisere and the Permanent Secretary, Women Affairs, Mrs. Ebiere Igodoh-Adeh corroborated the position of the ministry and Sawyer.
They said the baby was not sold but was being properly cared for by the government at the motherless babies’ home.
FIDA boss thanked the ministries of health and women affairs for opting to care for the helpless child.
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