The Rivers State police command has arrested a staff of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) over the mutilation of an 18-month-old baby.
The infant reportedly died at the hospital on Friday, August 3, 2018, following a struggle with anaemia.
Two weeks after the baby died, Mr Sunday Ede, the father of the deceased had returned to settle the mortuary bill at the hospital when he noticed that the corpse of his child had been tampered with.
Theportcitynews gathered that none of the officials who attended to him was able to provide an explanation to the heartbreaking discovery.
Ede alleged in a report that one of the nurses had earlier offered him N30,000 to have the baby buried at an unknown location. This was prior to its death on August 3.
“Even while the baby was still breathing, one of the nurses had approached me and asked to pay me N30,000 to have the baby buried somewhere. That got me annoyed.
“From that moment, they became nonchalant, claiming they were waiting for the blood test until the child died.
“I went to the mortuary on September 17 to pay the bill and retrieve the corpse. I had N20, 000 with me. But after taking the money, the attendant informed me my total bill was N56, 000.
“I requested to see the corpse of my baby. But to my surprise, when he brought out the baby’s corpse, the two eyes had been removed.”
“I had called my wife on phone and relayed the news to her. I broke down and wept. I was so angry I wanted to fight the mortuary attendants. Eventually, I abandoned the corpse to them.”
The police commissioner of Rivers State Ahmed Zaki confirmed receiving a petition from the father of the deceased.
This prompted a request for a meeting with the UPTH board but none of the hospital’s officials was present for the discussion scheduled for Saturday, September 22, 2018.
However, the police said that four mortuary attendants have been brought in for investigation.
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