…the child cannot talk and could have been washed into the ocean if it was raining
Barely 24 hours after her swearing-in as the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Dr Helen Isamoh has rescued a child abandoned inside a wide gutter filled with muddy shrubs in Calabar, Cross River State capital.
CONVERSEER learned that the incident happened at Satellite Town in Calabar Municipality on Thursday (August 17) when passersby saw the helpless and raised alarm.
A resident of the area who gave his name as Mark said a lady called him informing him of the baby who cannot talk.
“I was sitting down somewhere there [demonstrating by point of hand] when a lady called me and said I should come and see something, and as I came here, I saw the baby boy inside the gutter. The baby cannot speak, he cannot do anything”, Mark said.
He added, “I don’t know about the parents or their whereabouts”.
Another source said: “The helpless boy was left inside the gutter covered with grasses. Be it not for the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, who knows what could have happened to him – and you know a place like that will definitely be crawling with snakes or flooded if it rains.”
Speaking shortly after rescuing the child at about 7pm, Dr Isamoh assured the general public that the ministry would continue to work with all relevant government agencies and interest groups in fighting against inhumane acts and other social vices in the State.
The Commissioner who expressed her dissatisfaction over the ill-treatment of an innocent child, said: “It is difficult to contemplate on why an innocent child would endure a nine-month journey only to be abandoned in such a perilous location and condition.”
Our Reporter further gathered that Isamoh and her team immediately took the child to a government-accredited shelter (facility) for custody and proper care.
CONVERSEER reports that the gutter (drainage) holds one of the highest currents of water flow in the area when it rains – and definitely, the child could have been washed into the sea if he’d stayed longer than that.
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