The Bayelsa Police Command on Monday confirmed the arrest
of a 59 year old traditional health practitioner who allegedly cut off the
genitals of a nine-month-old baby during circumcision.
It will be recalled that the incident occurred at
Odenwari, a coastal settlement in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of
Bayelsa on February 5, 2017.
DSP Asinim Butswat, Police Spokesman for the Command said
on Monday that Mr Ziworitin Keke was in custody while investigation is
underway.
“We arrested the suspect following a report of the circumcision
incident, he is currently in our custody and he was arrested on Saturday and
hopefully after investigation, prosecution will follow subject to the outcome
of the investigation,” Butswat said.
On the delay in arresting the suspect, the Police
Spokesman said that the police got the report shortly after the incident in
February but the family was preoccupied with seeking medical care for the baby.
“We got the report earlier from Krokrosei Division of the
Command in Southern Ijaw which is the nearest Division, we have been working with
the family on the case,” Butswat said.
Mrs Eudora Michael, 35 mother of the baby said her nine
month old Oyintari Michael whose penis was cut off during the ill-fated
circumcision was at risk and in excruciating pains and desperately needs
medical help.
The mother said on Monday at Federal Medical Centre,
Yenagoa that she and her husband were indigent and cannot afford the specialized
care the baby needs to stay alive.
“Since this sad incident occurred in February this year,
we have been running around to raise money , we have borrowed up and down and
are in big debt, my husband has gone to village to gather money but people are not
forthcoming.
“People who had given us loan are not willing to give us
more when we have not paid what we borrowed.
“We are even surviving at the mercy of doctors who are
spending their own money when they see that we are unable to provide the drugs
they prescribe, the baby is in pains, always crying he cannot urinate and his
bladder is swollen.
“I have to stand near the bed or bend down to breastfeed
him so that the pipes connected into his genitals doesn’t shift and go off and
further complicate the situation,” she said
She appealed to the wife of Bayelsa Government Dr Rachael
Dickson , and kind hearted Nigerians to assist financially with medical bills
to save her baby, and that her jobless husband had no means to settle the
exorbitant medical cost.
The baby according to medical sources at the hospital
lost a lot of blood, but has been stabilised and may be scheduled for
corrective plastic surgery to reconstruct the urinary system to enable him pass
urine normally.
Michael accused her step-father Mr Ziworitin Keke, 59 of
deliberately cutting off her nine month oil baby’s penis during circumcision.
Michael, a mother of eight children, four male and four
female noted that the nine month old Master Oyintari is her first child to be
circumcised by Keke.
Michael alleged that
Keke ‘did it out of ‘malice’.
She explained that the pains caused by the incident was too
excruciating for a nine month old boy to bear.
“It is not a mistake at all as its being speculated. On
that day I was asleep and the man sent a message that I should bring my baby
for circumcision, my husband is still angry because I didn’t tell him.
“My husband and I had no immediate plan to circumcise our
baby that day, because he has been sick since birth. I carried the baby to him
and he cut off his genitals completely after checking the length.
“I was disturbed because the baby cried much more than
two other babies he had circumcised without complications. When I checked the
boy I saw the cut, he said that the penis shrunk inside and will come out after
treatment.
“I was not convinced , I knew there was danger and I took
my baby to a health centre outside our community at Krokrosei after he told me
to leave the baby with him for three weeks,” she said.
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