Lawmaker Laments Cases Of Child Abandonment, Donates Relief Items To Orphanage

By Sylvia Akpan: Government House Correspondent 

The Deputy Speaker of the 10th Cross River House of Assembly, Hon. Sylvester Agabi on Wednesday lamented the rise in cases of child abandonment in the State.

Mr. Agabi who wonders why anyone will suffer through pregnancy only to dump the child after birth described the act as one borne out of wickedness. 

“It is very inhumane for anybody to have a child in her stomach for nine months and have a safe delivery and abandon the child somewhere for no reason,” Agabi, who represents the Obudu State constituency, said while donating foodstuffs, toiletries, and other relief items to the Motherless Babies Home in Uwanse, Calabar as part of activities to mark his 41st birthday celebration. 

Recalling an incident about a fortnight ago where he, alongside the Speaker of the Assembly and other commissioners picked up the corpse of an abandoned baby, Agabi who disclosed that was not the first time such was happening, said, “We have lost children of this category because of a wicked set of people and I just pray that God should have mercy upon them because it is inhumane.” 

He continued; “I can’t understand why somebody will be pregnant for nine months and God in His infinite mercy preserved you, and you deliver that child safely, a lot of people had gone to the hospital but couldn’t return, then you abandon your child, I pray that God should have mercy upon them.” 

For Agabi who was accompanied by his counterparts in Ikom 1, Hon. Samuel Neji, and Akamkpa 2, Hon. Linus Bassey among others, the visitation is necessary because he could not celebrate, “with people who have enough to eat and drink, so I took the best decision to celebrate with people who cannot afford even a plate of meal in a day, and you can see that they are deprived of many things.” 

Receiving the items, the Deputy Head of the orphanage home, Mrs. Amatey Udin averred that; “It is a great one, it is important for us because the children need those resources that the celebrant has brought for us. It is a remarkable thing, mostly with the time now in the country where things are difficult.  For you to actually visit us, those things are going to go a long way to help in the welfare and care of the children.”