A young mother, Adeola Joseph, that buried her only child alive in her residence in Osogbo, Osun state for two days in 2012, has been jailed for six years. The trial Chief Magistrate, Mr Olusola Aluko, ordered that the 18-year-old mother should serve the jail term with hard labour. Handing down the judgment, the magistrate said the convict who looked unrepentant, did not deserve to live among humans.
He noted: “The convict is callous and may not change from her devilish act as she did not show any remorse. She may do worse if given the opportunity to continue to live amongst human beings. She needs to learn how to live among human beings and not animals.” Before her arrest at Ijetu area of the state capital and consequent conviction, she was said to have made several failed attempts in the past to eliminate the two-year-old baby, Fatia Nafiu, who she saw as standing in her way to making it in life.
But the 18-year-old woman who is now an unwilling guest of the Ilesa Prisons, said she had no regrets about her action. It was gathered that the determination to eliminate the baby was her desperation to relocate to Lagos in search of a white-collar job. Her parents were said to have insisted that she moved with the baby but she felt uncomfortable with the idea of combining the task of nursing a baby with gainful employment.
The woman who was confirmed to be mentally fit by medical doctors during her trial, had lived with the baby for two years. Adeola’s first attempt to get rid of baby Fatia was in November, last year, when she allegedly poisoned her food. It was gathered that the second attempt was in December last year, when the young mother dumped the baby by the bank of River Osun but some passersby rescued the baby and took her to a motherless babies home from where she was later returned to her mother.
The mother and child lived together until Adeola made another attempt to get rid of the baby. But by sheer providence, the child escaped death once again despite that she had been buried for two days. Many residents had rushed to the scene of the incident to catch a glimpse of the child, and were surprised that she survived two days in the grave before good Samaritans led by Prophetess Tunrayo Akinwande, who lived close to where she was buried, exhumed her.
It was gathered that the baby fainted and was rushed to the State Hospital, Asubiaro in Osogbo where she was admitted for three days before she was discharged. The Police prosecutor, Mr. Solomon Oladele, had told the court, that Joseph buried her child in the early hours of Monday, February18, 2012 and the child was rescued after two days by a Good Samaritan, Prophetess Tunrayo Akinwande, who lived around the area.
Oladele said that before the intervention of Prophetess Akinwande and other residents of the area who exhumed Fatia, the innocent baby had been in the grave for two days. The convict who had faced a three-count charge of attempted murder, felony and breach of peace, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy.
She told the court that her parents were not favourably disposed to her marriage with the father of her child and had since been living alone without assistance from any body, hence her resolve to terminate the baby’s life. Also, the convict had told the court that she decided to kill the baby due to her decision to relocate to Lagos in search of a job and could not bear the responsibilities of caring for the baby and working in Lagos.