By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Investigations have revealed that mother of the dead 2 years old girl found in Ningi, Ummi Salma, 17 years old Lauratu Saleh had the girl out of wedlock as she was got pregnanted by her boyfriend, 23 years old Abubakar Usman, a Commercial Motorcycle operator in Ningi.
The Police investigation led to the arrest of four suspects according to the Command PPRO, SP Ahmed Wakili, who are the 17 years old mother of the dead girl, Lauratu Saleh, the 23 years old father, Abubakar Usman, the Chemist who offered first aid to the girl, Aminu and the elder brother of the mother who volunteered to take the corpse to the father in Ningi.
It would be recalled that two days ago, the corpse of a 2-year old girl was found wrapped in clothes and dumped within the premises of a Mosque in an area known as Newada in Ningi, headquarters of Ningi LGA.
Addressing Journalists while parading the suspects at the Command headquarters, Ahmed Wakili said that it was discreet investigations that led to the arrest of the suspects who are currently helping investigations to unravel circumstances surrounding the incident.
The PPRO added that the issue of the alleged rape of the dead girl is what the Command is doing everything possible to establish as a Medical Doctor at the General Hospital in Ningi has confirmed there was rape of the dead girl.
Speaking to Journalists, the 17 years old Lauratu Saleh, mother of the late Umma Salma explained that She is not married to the father who impregnated her when she was about 14 years making her delivered out of wedlock.
According to her, “I live in Old Tifi, close to Ningi town, he was my boyfriend and along the line I got pregnant, he refused to allow me go to their house and I delivered the baby in my family house.”
She added that, “When he was not living up to his responsibilities, my parents took the matter to the Social Welfare Centre and he was directed to be giving us upkeep allowance which he did not do as directed. My family and I had been taking care of the girl until her untimely death last week.”
Asked to narrate what led to the death, she narrated that,”For few days, the girl was running temperature, then she started vomiting and stooling and when it persisted, I had to take her to a nearby Chemist who treated and placed her on drips but I discovered that she was convulsing, my elder brother therefore stopped the drip and removed the canula from her hand. After sometime, I noticed that she was motionless and my mother confirmed that she was dead.”
She added that,”On Monday, in the morning, the girl died while strapped on my back and I inf my mother of the development. My mother called my elder brother who immediately called the father to tell him what happened. He asked him to come over to our house but he refused to come because according to him he was busy attending to his wife who was in labour.”
Lauratu Saleh however said that she was not aware of the issue of alleged rape, saying,”All I know is that, at the time of her death, she was bleeding from the mouth, nose and ear. That was how my elder brother took her wrapped in my clothes to her father. I am not aware of such.”
Father of the dead girl, Abubakar Usman confirmed that he was not married to Lauratu but got her pregnant when she turned down his proposal for marriage because she told him that she had somebody else and because he did not want to lose her, he inpregnanted her.
According to him, “I was called by the elder brother of my girlfriend that my daughter was dead and asked to come and collect the corpse but I was busy attending to my wife who was in labour at that moment. I have never told my parents about the development.”
He added that later that day at about 8pm,the elder brother brought the dead girl to him and handed the corpse to him, saying,”I was so confused about what to do, so, I took the corpse to the Mosque and dumped it there without informing anyone. My thinking was that it will be found and given the normal Muslim funeral.”
Abubakar Usman confirmed that he was directed by the Social Welfare Centre to be giving monthly stipend for upkeep which he said he was not faithful to because as a commercial motorcycle operator, things were not going smoothly with him as he has a family of four people to take care of.
He stressed that he regretted his action and asked for forgiveness from all those affected by his actions particularly his immediate family for bring ridicule to them saying that, “The death of Ummi Salma was a painful one to me because she was my daughter.”
Aminu, the Community Health Worker (CHEW) who treated late Ummi Salma said that he did that as a means of first aid to save her life considering the condition she was when she was brought to his Chemist.
He said that he is a licensed Chemist having graduated from the College of Health Technology as a CHEW and decided to open his own patent medicine store in the locality stressing that he has been treating people over the years without any complications.
Aminu added that he directed them to take her to the General Hospital as soon as possible but did not know the reason they decided to keep her at home leading to the death.
The issue to be resolved now is that of the alleged rape as confirmed by a Medical Doctor at the General Hospital in Ningi where she was confirmed dead but with traces of blood from her vagina indicating forced penetration.
