A mother of six from Guru village in outskirt of Bauchi, Bauchi State has confessed that she threw her one day old infant into the soak -away shortly after delivering her at home because of hardship.
Juliana James, an indigene of Shendan LGA of Plateau State, wept profusely as she spoke with journalists at the Police Command Headquarters in Bauchi, saying she loved her child.
The housewife who lives with her husband James and her six children-five girls and a boy in a one room apartment – claimed that things were so rough for her family that she decided that the way out was to sacrifice the newborn.
“Things are hard. My husband has no job. He had an accident three months ago he is still in the hospital ago and the situation became worse for us. We don’t see food to eat. We were dying of starvation”
I delivered at home and threw the baby in the toilet because I don’t know how we are going to take care of it. I didn’t tell my husband,” she narrated amidst sobs.
The newborn whose cry attracted neighbours, was rescued alive nearly 12 hours later before being rushed to the Abubakar Tafawa University Teaching Hospital for medical attention.
A source claimed that Juliana seemed to be depressed due to hardship. “She was a hardworking mother who fried bean-cake in the neighborhood but for some time now, during her pregnancy, she had not been coming out.
“May be the recession took its toll on her,” the source said.