A sixteen year old girl, Miss Agnes Igben and her mum have been banished from Bedia Village in Obudu Local Government for conspiring to bury Agnes’ new born baby alive.
Crossriverwatch gathered that Agnes who suddenly became pregnant nine months ago, until she was delivered of her baby girl at home by traditional birth attendants could not tell who had impregnated her.
A source in the village told crossriverwatch that “Agnes became pregnant suddenly and the mum who was obviously frustrated by that, kept living in denial saying the daughter was not pregnant. She delivered the baby in the house on Saturday and the mother conspired with the girl and they went to the bush to bury the little girl alive.
“It is the eagle eyes of some of the villagers here who saw them going to the bush with the baby and returning empty handed that alerted people and when both of them were summoned, they took us to the bush where the baby was buried alive in a shallow grave. They also tried in vain to suffocate the baby, but the baby did not die so they had to bury her alive.
“We quickly rushed to the bush, dug out the girl and rushed her to the Primary Health Center in Ibung Village. The nurses there tried their best but the baby could not survive it.
“That is an abomination, not only in our village but everywhere in the world where there is value for human life” our source said.
One of the chiefs in the village also told crossriverwatch that “When the information got to us, we could not believe our ears. This kind of thing has not happened in this village before. The village council had to call an emergency meeting in the village square and the mother and daughter had to be expelled from amongst us.
“We don’t want such human beings to live within us. They have done an abominable act and their continued stay in this village is contrary to our values and tradition. The entire village gathered on Saturday and having heard their confessions about how they did not want the baby and how they had to kill her, as it is with our tradition, all married women and unmarried adult women in this village had to escort them with the traditional leaves out of this village to the boundary where they have been banished to the woman’s village in Bebuagbong.”
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