A medical practitioner, Dr. James Babatunde Adeyemi, proprietor of Mambo Maternity and Laboratory Clinic, in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, has been arrested in connection with alleged sale of baby. Dr Adeyemi, a fellow of the General Practice Council of Nigeria, was accused of selling David Joseph Edem, the son of a 17–year-old girl called Miss Sarah Joseph Edem to a Sapele-based lady simply called Helen. The lady has absconded from police custody.
Distraught Sarah told P.M.News in Ikot Ansa, a suburb of Calabar, that sometime in 2006, she was pregnant and after confronting her boy friends, non of them was willing to accept responsibility for the pregnancy and to avoid trouble from her mother and elder sisters, she concealed it for about four months after which her elder sister discovered and was furious with her.
As an apprentice with Rainbow Garment, a fashion designing firm, the pregnancy was going to prevent her from acquiring the trade since she had dropped out of school.
Her elder sister, Imaobong, furious that the N10,000 she paid for her to learn the trade would be wasted, she decided to pay another N10,000 to have the pregnancy terminated.
“When Imaobong discovered that I was pregnant she was furious with me. She, however, calmed down and decided that I should have the pregnancy terminated. Somebody directed us to Dr Adeyemi who demanded for N10,000 which she paid, but the doctor said the pregnancy had escaped to my back and he could not trace it and so I should then keep coming to see him.”
She said she kept visiting the hospital to have the pregnancy removed but the doctor only kept asking her to repeat her visit some other date until it became too risky to attempt an abortion. She then accepted her fate as her mother too was opposed to taking the abortion option. With abortion shelved, the doctor opted to be ‘monitoring’ the progress of the pregnancy.
This, she said, was to enable Adeyemi keep an eye on her to know when she would put to bed.
“I did not attend antenatal in his clinic, but occasionally, he would send for me to ask how I was doing. Because I did not have money to go to hospital, my sister took me to a midwife at RCC Road where I delivered on 29 April.”
A few days after delivery, Dr Adeyemi called Imaobong to “find out about my patient”. He was informed that the girl had delivered and was in the house. On Friday, 5 May, Adeyemi visited their home in the company of a nurse with the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital , (UCTH).
The nurse gave Imaobong N200 to buy drugs.
“When my sister went out, Adeyemi took me to a corner of the house and told me to come to see him on Sunday in his hospital. That I should not allow anyone know that I was going to see him,” Imaobong said.
On Saturday, she said Dr Adeyemi visited again to further instruct her to ensure he she showed up in the hospital. As agreed, that Sunday she went to see Adeyemi “after my sister had left for church with Emem, our last born, and my mother off to her farm in Odukpani.”
Her stay in hospital took her far into the night. Her absence agitated the minds of her siblings as to where she had gone to. Later that evening Imaobong received a call from someone claiming to be the step sister to the boy who impregnated Sarah. The caller, Imaobong, said told her that Sarah was with her in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and that she was the step sister to the boy who impregnated Imaobong and would now take care of David.
“I was mad. Who is that boy that throughout Sarah’s pregnancy never showed up. It is now that he knows Sarah should be taken to his step sister. I warned the woman to return Sarah immediately or I would raise alarm.”
The caller, Imaobong said, cut the line and when she called back she refused to pick the call.
Meanwhile, Sarah said when she got to the hospital, Adeyemi gave her some drugs to take which made her feel dizzy.
“After taking the drugs he drove me in his car to White House Street where Mary Okon lives and collected the baby from the car and handed him over to the nurse.
“I was feeling too weak and confused and could not do or say anything,” Sarah narrated.
After returning to the hospital, Dr. Adeyemi she said gave her the key to his office to go in there and wait.
“After I waited for a long time in his office, he did not come. I decided to come out when my head cleared a little. When he came back, he was very angry and ordered me to go inside the office and he locked me up,” Sarah said in tears.
The girl was locked up in office until the following day which was a Monday. According to her, the doctor on Monday morning wrote a letter which he handed over to her to copy which he then dispatched to her sisters in Ikot Ansa.
The letter apologised and requested for forgiveness from her mother and sisters for handing over “David to his father’s step sister to take care of since we cannot take care of him alone.”
When Imaobong got the letter, she was furious and went the next day with her mother to Mambo Clinic where they met Adeyemi with two ladies.
“He pleaded with my mother to stop screaming. That David had been taken to the motherless babies’ home and he would soon go and bring him. That the women in charge of the home went for a burial and would be back two days later. When my mother heard this, she fainted,” Imaobong told P.M.News.
Imaobong who said she missed the last JAMB because of the case said they went back two days later but Adeyemi was no where to be found. They then reported the matter to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development but were advised to report the matter to the police.
At the police station, they were directed to, the anti-human trafficking unit said a nurse in the General Hospital, Calabar had observed the suspicious movement of two women and had called the attention of a doctor to them.
The women claimed they wanted to “spend the night in the hospital” this allegedly raised the suspicion of the doctor as one of them had a new born baby and a wrapper tied around her waist to indicate that she had just put to bed.
When the doctor examined them it was discovered that non of them had just put to bed. They were subsequently arrested and handed over to the police at the Akim Police station. There they were said to have made some useful statements to the effect that they bought the baby from a medical doctor and were at the hospital to “procure” another baby to take to their husbands since they have been without children after 30 years of marriage. They later bolted away after the confessional statement but without the baby as he was with the doctor.
When Dr. Adeyemi was invited by the police, he said “Sarah came crawling to him to assist take care of the baby since she was not able to care for the baby alone”.
When asked to get the baby from his wife’s friend, he could not. So, he was subsequently taken into custody by the police.
He was held for over five days before the AIG Zone Six, Alhaji Aina released him on bail.
When contacted in his hospital at 12 Atamunu Street, Dr. Adeyemi, said he had no time to talk to the “press because the matter as you have said is an allegation. The matter is with the police and if you want to know what happened get my statement from the police. Now please leave my office as I have patients to attend to.”
The Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association , Dr. Ikpeme Ikpeme said they have been several cases of ethical misconduct reported against Adeyemi but “ each time they tell us that he is an in-law to the state and should be forgiven.”
Another medical practitioner who prefers anonymity said that “it is a known fact that Mambo Clinic is a grave yard. So many girls have died there or have had their reproductive system destroyed by Adeyemi as the man does nothing than abortion or D and C.
“Those he does not abort, he sells to the highest bidder. If that man is not stopped, he will inflict untold damage on medicare in the state.”
Dr. Joseph Ana, the State Commissioner for Health was said to be too busy with the hand over process to speak with our correspondent.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the Cross River command, ASP Thomas Okpene, said the “man was asked to be released on bail by AIG Zone Six. When the Commissioner asked for the file because of the shoddy way the case was handled by Akim, it was reported that the AIG had given instruction that he should be taken on bail.”
Residents of the state are worried that if Adeyemi is allowed to continue to practice without any sanction he would inflict more damage on medicare in the state.
Culled from PM News
