Sodiq Ojuroungbe As Nigeria continues to witness a surge in the number of babies dumped in unsanitary and unsightly areas in public places, experts have demanded an immediate policy reform aimed at tackling the alarming surge in cases of baby dumping, both dead and alive. This distressing trend, the public health physicians argued, constitutes a grave violation of children’s rights and necessitates swift and decisive action to confront it. Speaking exclusively with PUNCH Healthwise, the physicians noted that there is an urgent need for systemic changes to address the root causes of baby abandonment.
Recently, there has been a disturbing increase in the dumping of babies, deceased and alive. On June 3, 2024, the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, CP Nnaghe Itam, ordered an immediate investigation into the lifeless body of a newborn found in a sack near a refuse dump after Aroma Junction, along Ifite Road in Awka, the Anambra State capital. The lifeless body of the day-old baby wrapped in old clothes was said to have been dumped alive apparently by its mother, who did not want it.
According to some of the residents, the newborn was heard crying for several hours in the night before the bag was found in the morning. Similarly, on February 26, 2024, a premature baby was discovered dead in front of a female hostel at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt Rivers State. It was gathered that the male child, who was covered with a cloth, was dropped by an u.