The news spread like wildfire. The sight of a new baby and placenta shocked the crowd of staff and students that rushed to Moremi Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, where a student reportedly gave birth in the toilet. Did the mother attempt to flush her baby down the toilet? No, she says. DHIKRU AKINOLA (400-Level Political Science), OLUWAFEMI OGUNJOBI (400-Level Language Arts) and KEMI BUSARI (400-Level Political Science) write.
A SHRILL cry shattered the peace of the night at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State.
It was Wednesday and some students, who had exams the following day, were returning from studying to their hostels. Others, who had no papers, were relaxing in their hostels.
At 6:55am, the peace in Moremi Hall, a female hostel, was shattered. Mrs Cecilia Ologbenla, a cleaner, who had come to wash the toilet, found a newborn baby in the water closet. With the body still covered in blood, the cleaner was sure the baby was born a few minutes before her arrival. She raised the alarm, calling the attention of the hostel’s occupants and security personnel.
The baby was delivered by Oyinlola Rotimi Diana, a student, who was going to write her exam; students rushed to the scene, using their camera phones to take shots of the baby and the placenta. In no time, the news went viral on the social media. Students accused Oyinlola of attempting to “flush” the baby into the sewer because “she did not want people to know she was pregnant”.
Oyinlola, 22, it was gathered, is in 300-Level Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, and a squatter in Room 103 of Block B in Moremi Hall. She was allegedly impregnated by a 400-Level Engineering student.
Oyinlola’s friend, Dayo Satope, who was with her at the sudden delivery, wrote in a statement made at the university security unit that she came to the campus on Tuesday evening to prepare for an exam fixed for 8am.
“Getting to the campus late on Tuesday night, Oyinlola could not immediately get something to eat but she later resolved to buy moin-moin (bean cake) at the hall’s buttery. After she ate the food, Oyinlola complained of running stomach throughout the night, urinating and stooling at regular intervals. She felt she was having stomach turbulence because of the moin-moin she took the previous night,” Shatope wrote in the statement.
The following morning, it was learnt, Oyinlola’s friends told her to visit the school’s health centre for medical attention. She consented. The story, however, changed when Oyinlola told her friends that she wanted to visit the toilet again. She was ushered into the toilet and told to inform her friends when she was done.
After waiting for her for several minutes, Shatope wondered what could have kept Oyinlola in the toilet for so long. She then decided to check on her ‘ailing’ friend. On getting to the toilet, Shatope found that Oyinlola had locked herself inside, but saw blood on the toilet floor.
Scared, Shatope called on Oyinlola to know if everything was alright and she begged her friend to “come inside to assist me”. Shatope could not gain access into the toilet because Oyinlola was “too weak” to open the door, which was locked from behind. At this point, Shatope said she heard the cry of a baby.
Oyinlola was said to have fainted after delivering the baby whose cry attracted Ologbenla. The baby and the mother were immediately rushed to the university’s health centre.
When CAMPUSLIFE visited the OAU Health Services Centre, the Director, Dr Adebayo Irinoye, told our correspondents: “The girl and the baby are feeling very fine and the parents of the girl are around to also take care of their daughter and the baby.”
Irinoye explained that self-labour cases were not new in medical field, saying there were instances of patients delivering babies in the toilet.
“I guessed it was inexperience because she obviously was not aware of her due date which, medically, would have been July,” Dr Irinoye said, assuring that the baby was not delivered prematurely.
The university’s Chief Security Officer, Mr Paul Ogidi, debunked the notion that Oyinlola wanted to flush the baby based on Shatope’s explanation.
He said: “She was not attempting to flush the baby but looking at the circumstances surrounding the birth of the child, one might likely think so. When I visited the Health Centre on Thursday, she was breastfeeding her baby. If she had the intention to kill or flush the baby, she would have aborted the pregnancy a long time ago.”
Oyinlola denied she wanted to kill the baby. She told our correspondents that her pregnancy was not unknown to her, but she confided only in some of her friends and the father of the baby, a Mechanical Engineering student.
She said: “Why would I flush or kill my baby after going through pains of carrying it for nine months. I am not heartless and I thank God for my life and for the safe delivery. I know God has the best for me and my baby. I appreciate the cleaner for her help because it was here (health centre) that I understood everything that happened to me when I was in labour.
“It is overwhelming and unexplainable. I don’t know how I feel, but it is really wonderful. Seeing the baby was terrifying because I was not expecting the baby to come out yet I didn’t know the pain I was feeling was a labour pain because I went into the toilet to defecate. There was a force from within me and I discovered that the baby came out and entered into the closet. I was just there standing and bleeding. That was the last thing I remembered. I am happy that I am alive and my baby is alive too.”
The Public Relations Officer of the university, Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju, in a statement, also dismissed the rumour that Oyinlola wanted to flush the baby. The statement reads in part: “There was a delivery of a baby boy by an inexperienced mother who, in her naivety, thought she was pressed by the call of nature while she was actually in labour pains. Prior to the child’s delivery, the young, inexperienced mother had experienced the urge, which she thought was to defecate. When she got to the toilet, she gave birth to the baby.”
A close friend of Oyinlola, who attends the same fellowship with her, said she was surprised on hearing the news. She said: “Oyin is a cool and courteous student. I have been observing changes in her for quite a while. I didn’t want to confront her yet I found it hard to accept she was normal.”
The Health Centre matron, Mrs Mary Oyeleke, said Oyinlola and her baby were discharged last Friday.
Efforts to reach Samuel, the baby’s father, were futile as at press time. He was said to be busy with his examination.
Source: The Nation
No comments:
Post a Comment