Culled from Nigeria Tribune
THE news of the mutilated body of a 14-month-old baby, Kingsley Oleh, which circulated on Monday has continued to generate more interest as members of the Ogun State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association visited the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Ogun State Police Command at Eleweran, Abeokuta on Wednesday, June 12 to get a first hand report on what happened prior to, and after the death of the baby.
It will be recalled that the baby’s corpse was discovered on the admission bed in a mutilated state on Sunday, June 9 at Ajike Medical Centre, Sango after his death on Saturday, June 8, in the same hospital, but the mystery surrounding what happened to the corpse and how it happened is still what detectives from the homicide section of the CID are trying to resolve.
The baby’s father, Mr. Obinna Oleh, had told the police that he took his sick child to Ajike Medical Centre on Friday, June 7. On Saturday, after initial improvement, Mr Oleh said the boy’s health condition nosedived until he died at about 8p.m. Oleh added that though he was not owing the hospital as he made an initial deposit, prior to his admission and treament, he did not argue with the nurse who approached him for the balance payment of hospital bills. He claimed to have left the corpse behind, taking his wife home with the intention of coming back the following day to pay the bill and take the child’s corpse away.
To his utmost shock, he said, he discovered that the eyes, tongue, two lips, two ears, the penis, nails and the left hand vein of his son had been removed.
Things however took another dimension as the owner and Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Babawale Joshua was attacked and would have been killed, save for the arrival of the policemen, who quickly took him away into safety.
However, the doctor on duty when the baby was admitted and when he died, Dr Opeyemi Ogunrinde, told Crime Reports that contrary to Oleh’s claim, the corpse of the boy was removed same night that he died after the family collected his death certificate. The owner of the hospital, Dr Joshua, also spoke with Crime Reports on how he was being vilified without fair hearing by the public.
Below are the excerpts of the interview with the duo:
Dr Opeyemi Ogunrinde
“I started working with Ajike Medical Centre in April 2013. On Friday, June 7, between 6a.m. and 7a.m., one Kingsley Oleh, a one year, two months old boy, was brought to the hospital by his parents.
After examining the child, I made a diagnosis that the child was suffering from congested cardiac failure, secondary to bronco-pneumonia. This was after he had measles which was not treated.
“I admitted the child and asked the father to make a deposit of N5,000. He said he only had N2,000, pleading that he was a known patient to the medical director. I accepted and put the child on the bed. I left the hospital at 9a.m. that morning. I came back to duty at 6p.m and was in my room on the second floor of the hospital.
“At about 12.30a.m. on Saturday, the father requested for me and when we met, he told me that the child was not improving at all; that he was not satisfied with our treatment. He asked me to go and do anything I could do for the patient to recover. I replied that the child was seriously sick and it would take time for him to recover. I added that if he was not satisfied, he could take his child to another hospital.
“At 9a.m. again, I left the hospital and came back 7.30p.m. I was in my room at about 9p.m. when the hospital’s cleaner came and told me that the child seemed to be dead. I came down and examined the child, and confirmed that he was dead. At that time, I met the child’s mother and three men said to be elders from the mother’s church. They said they were praying for the child when he gave up the ghost. Nobody informed me of any noticed change in the baby before he gave up.
“They requested for the death certificate, and because of the disagreement I had with the father in the early hours of the day, I had to lock myself up in my room to fill the certificate because of the fear that I could be attacked. The cleaner came up, collected the certificate and the case note and handed the certificate to the father of the deceased. Immediately, the father and the elders that were praying took the corpse of the child away.
“At about 11p.m., we had an emergency accident case which we started battling with – I, the cleaner and a staff nurse. The staff told me that the corpse had been taken away. We finished with the emergency case at about 2a.m. and I went back to my room. I woke up in the morning to see a crowd gathered in front of the hospital. Wondering what was happening, I heard people saying that different parts of the child’s corpse had been cut.
“I later heard that the father brought the corpse back to the hospital.We were in the emergency room so we did not know when the corpse was brought back. We just saw that the corpse was on the admission bed, mutilated; a corpse that had been initially taken away.”
Dr Babawale Joshua
“I am the owner of the hospital and Dr Ogunrinde is my resident doctor. He admitted a patient whom I reviewed. I actually saw the boy on Friday. His condition was still critical but there was hope that he would survive. It was 50-50 chance and I told the mother. When I got to the hospital on Saturday morning around 11.30a.m., I saw the mother crying. She told me that she was asked to buy one drug which she had not bought, saying that her husband was not around. It was Rocephin injection, an antibiotic drug.
“I gave the money to buy the drug since I knew them as my patients. Because of so many complications that the boy had, he had thrush in the mouth and could not eat well. He was also coughing and vomiting.
“We promised to try our best and I was there till about 7.30p.m. when I left for my other house. At 9.30p.m., I received a call from my nurse telling me that the baby had died. With resignation, I said that his chances were 50-50. She reminded me that they were yet to pay their bill but I told her to leave them since they live on the same street with the hospital.
“On Sunday morning, I was in church ministering when I received a call that the father had come to cause some problems in the hospital, saying that the baby’s eyes had been removed. She said that they did not know when the corpse was returned to the hospital.
I informed my pastors and they volunteered to follow me to the hospital. As I got there, the people outside attacked us but I was still able to get in. I saw the body and observed a little tear by the side of the mouth. I also noticed that the eyeball looked as if it was punctured, with liquid coming out. I was wondering what could have happened because it was all mystery to me. I called the men around to see that contrary to what was being peddled, the tongue, the mouth, the eyes etc. were there, only the tear in the mouth and the eye that looked punctured.
“As I was explaining to them, the family members descended on me and started beating me with any weapon they could lay hands on. I was almost killed. A policeman, apparently called by an unknown person came and handcuffed me to take me to the station but they started shouting ‘No!’. They siezed my phone, took the money in my pocket, tore my clothes with blood gushing out of the injuries on my head.
“The police and everyone had to run away with me. That was when they had a field day destroying everything on sight – my car, the hospital ambulance etc. They vandalised the entire hospital building and the equipment.”
Crime Reports learnt that the corpse of the baby had been deposited at the Ifo General Hospital for autopsy.
In his comment, the police image maker in Ogun State, DSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi said that the police commissioner in Ogun State, Ikemefuna Okoye, had ordered the CID to take over the case for thorough investigation. “The case note of the baby had been secured and the police commissioner has assured the general public that the culprits of the devilish act would be brought to book,” Adejobi added.
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