Kanyi Okeke
Following his arrest last week for allegedly mutilating the corpse of a 13-month-old baby boy in his hospital, a 37-year-old woman identified as Cordelia Ifechukwude, has alleged that she suffered similar fate at the medical centre of a Lagos-based doctor, Babawale Joshua.
The Aniocha North, Delta-born mother of five narrated her experience:
The incident happened at the No 1 Ajike close, branch of the medical centre, a few metres away from Amje bus-stop, Alakuko, a suburb of Lagos. According to Vanguard, she said “It happened in year 2000 when I took in with my first baby.
“I registered at Ayinke House, Ikeja General Hospital, but because I was advised to also register at a clinic very close to our house, I registered at Ajike hospital at Amje bus stop, Alakuko. We lived at Ajegunle bus stop, not too far from the clinic.
“The reason we chose Ajike medical centre was because my husband got acquainted with Dr Babawale Joshua, the Chief Medical Director and owner of the medical centre, and in the course of their discussion, he told my husband that he had his first degree in General Medicine and second degree in Public Health at the University of Ibadan. That might have prompted my husband to make up his mind about us registering at his clinic.
My pains and agony
“We trusted him based on the fact that the University of Ibadan has a good record when it comes to medicine. I went for Ante-Natal at the Ayinke House, Ikeja. Around the months of February/March, I went into labour at about 5pm. My husband was still at work then, so I went to the nearest clinic where I registered, being Ajike medical centre. When he returned around 10pm that evening, my husband rushed to the clinic and met me lying in the theatre. that was around 10 pm.
“Also, on my second day at the clinic, my husband confided in me that as he was taking a walk around the premises that morning while he was waiting for the doctor to come down from his residence and attend to me. He said he saw a dead white cat, tied to an iron protector of one of the windows of the doctor’s main office, with something that looks like a blue ink sprinkled on the cat. He said he was shocked at the sight but since he did not know what it meant, he waved it off and concentrated on my safe delivery.
“By the evening of the second day, my baby’s kicks had stopped and I could hardly walk. But the nurse kept pressing my stomach and claimed they could still hear my baby’s movements. The doctor also claimed he could still hear the baby’s movement. I was later placed on a theatre table, naked.
“The doctor removed my earrings and the rosary I had on my fingers. He sprinkled what he called anointing oil all over me, saying I was a witch and that I did not want to deliver the baby. At the end of the day, the second day passed and I was not delivered of the baby. By the third day, I was no longer able to urinate and my left leg was literally dead. The doctor asked my husband to bring the sum of fifty thousand Naira for a cesarean operation, that the baby was stuck in my womb.
“That was when it dawned on my husband that if we continued like that, he would not only lose the baby, but his wife as well. He went and chartered a commercial bus that conveyed us to Ayinke House in Ikeja.
“The doctors at Ayinke were not particularly pleased with us for taking that long to come to them. They initially refused attending to me but when we showed them our card which was a proof that we were registered with them, they took me in and carried out a scan which showed the baby had been dead for some time. The report given after examining my condition was that Dr. Babawale did a ‘bad job’.
“They also said there was no need for a cesarean operation since the baby was dead but that they would have to evacuate the baby using forceps. When the baby was pulled out, the pain was so unbearable that my screams engulfed the entire two-storey building that housed the ante natal building.
The whole place was covered with a foul stench because the baby was already decaying in my womb. Thereafter, I was wheeled to the theatre for cleaning. I spent three days at the hospital before being discharged. My file should still be at Ayinke as proof of this incident.”
