The atmosphere in the maternity centre was serene. There was nothing suggesting the occurrence which took the reporter there. Nurses on duty were courteous but grew cautious and suspicious when it was obvious the reporter was not a patient. Why is he here?
The birth of a new born baby would normally elicit joy and excitement in people. It is more so when the mother has been longing for it without results for years. But, the reverse was the case in a maternity centre (name withheld) situated at Ifosan area of Ilesa, in Osun State where a woman recently gave birth to a baby with two horns on its head.
A tip had given Saturday Tribune photos of the strange baby, the arrival of which caused fear and trepidation among the nurses and the proprietress of the maternity centre. The tip also described the hospital and the geography of its area of operation.
The description was vivid and accurate enough for Saturday Tribune to locate the health centre without much difficulty. Here is the maternity centre where the baby with two horns was born. Then, there was a thick wall of silence. Nurses on duty would neither deny nor confirm the development. The reporter was tossed up and down and finally landed before the proprietress of the centre. She would not talk unless her identity and that of her hospital were protected. The reporter gave his words.
“It is true the baby was born,” she said, but added that the horror of the event compelled her to instruct her staff to keep sealed lips over the development, with a view to warding off public attention to the centre over the scary baby.
Speaking with Saturday Tribune during the visit on Thursday, the proprietress, (she is called matron by her staff) said the woman who gave birth to this deformed baby was “about 25 years old and she has been without a child for three years.”
She explained that “this woman lives in one of the farm settlements on the outskirt of Ilesa. She registered for antenatal service here. So, when she wanted to put to bed, her relatives rushed her here to deliver the baby.
“But we were shocked to the marrow when she eventually delivered the baby with two horns on the head after going into labour for some hours. By the time she was delivered of the baby, it was already dead and we had to separate it from the placenta.
“I have never seen such a terrible creature in my life. So, we helped to pack the dead baby and the placenta and handed them over to them before they left our premises. It was indeed a fearful development and we were saddened about it.
“This is not something we can celebrate. So, I ordered by nurses and other attendants to keep their mouth shut over the incident. But, I am very surprised how you people got to know about it and came here to inquire about it. I do not want anyone to make something unnecessary out of this or create problems for us here,” she stated.
She would not disclose the whereabouts of the woman who delivered the baby. “I cannot give you any details about her. Like I told you, she lives in one of the farm settlements on the outskirts of Ilesa and I don’t really know the area and I want you to leave me out of this matter,” she added.
The woman who froze when she was shown the photographs of the baby, however, confirmed its genuineness but asked how Saturday Tribune got them. A staff member of the clinic also showed Saturday Tribune her own photos of the baby taken with her phone.
All efforts to locate the exact location of the baby’s mother and her identity were not successful.
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