From Wole Adedeji, Ilorin.
A nurse attendant with a private hospital in Ilorin , Kwara state and a Muslim cleric have been arrested by men of the Kwara state Police command over the alleged sale of the placenta of a new born baby.
The baby was delivered at the hospital where the attendant works and in conivance with the Islamic cleric allegedly sold out the placenta for N20,000.
Sources told this reporter that the placenta was sold by the nurse attendant to the cleric for suspected money ritual purposes
It was gathered that the medical officer in charge of the private hospital reported the matter to the police, leading to the arrest of the two suspects in different locations of Ilorin on Monday.
According to sources, the heinous act in a private hospital located at Oko-Erin area of the metropolis went bust when the father of the new born baby, one Jimoh Abdulfatah, demanded for the placenta of his new born baby from the hospital.
It was also gathered that the father had taken his wife to the clinic for Caesarean section after unsuccessful efforts of his wife to have a normal delivery at both the Civil Service Clinic and the General Hospital, Ilorin where they had gone for medical attention.
Abdulfatah said that he was referred to the private hospital by a nurse at the General Hospital, Ilorin.
The operation was however successful at the private hospital before the story turned sour.
The father who, said that he had passed through stressful moments for two days over his wife’s situation, added that he had forgotten to ask for the placenta on the day his wife was delivered of the baby and had to come back when he remembered to demand for the placenta from the hospital.
However, Abdulfatah said that a senior nurse he met in the hospital told him that the nurse attendant that was also on duty on the day of the operation to bring the placenta said she could no longer find the placenta where she had put it on the day of the delivery.
It was at this point he informed the police at the Surulere station and the nurse attendant was subsequently arrested.
Following police interrogation, it was gathered that the nurse attendant confirmed that she gave the placenta to one Muslim cleric. He was subsequently arrested too.
The development however prompted the matter to be transferred to the state police headquarters for further investigation on the issue.
Upon further interrogation of the cleric at the police headquarters, the cleric also confirmed receiving the placenta from the nurse attendant but failed to produce it, saying that he had thrown it into a stream near his house.
The Muslim cleric, whose wife is also pregnant, was said to have told the police that the placenta was useless for the purpose he wanted to use it for, adding that the baby was delivered through operation against normal delivery that could have made the placenta useful.
Speaking on the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the arrest of the two suspects said that the nurse attendant and the cleric had been helping police in its further investigations on the matter.
He said that the duo would be arraigned in court after completion of police investigations on the issue.