A four-day-old baby boy has been gruesomely murdered by his own mother
who fed him with a N40 rat poison. Binta Shuaibu, 20, conspired with
her friend, Hindatu Umar, 27, to commit the dastardly act in Dan
Amarya village, Danja Local Government Area of Katsina State.
The mother and her co-conspirator are now answering to the wicked act
in police custody.
What could make a mother willfully kill her own baby? The suspect,
Binta tells her story "I was born in Layin-Ruwa, Kafur Local
Government Area Katsina State. I got married 11years ago and my
husband, Inusa later forced me to divorce him. I have only one son,
Aminu for him.
"After the divorce, I decided to go into prostitution. The money I got
from prostitution is what I use to feed my father in the village. My
father had divorced my mother because my mother begged him to allow me
to return to my former husband, but my father rejected the advice. My
father divorced my mother because of that.
"While engaged in prostitution, I suddenly had an unwanted pregnancy,
which I did not terminate. I was able to conceal the pregnancy and
successfully had the baby boy delivered in my room.
"The ward head, Maiunguwa in the village where I was doing
prostitution had warned all prostitutes not to have unwanted
pregnancy, and that anyone who got pregnant must relocate to any
nearby village to deliver and care for the baby there.
"But because of the warning by village head, I was at a loss to what
to do with the baby and my calling as a prostitute.
"My good friend, Hindatu Umar suggested that since we do not want to
stop prostitution, we should kill the baby. We both went into the
street and bought rat poison for N40 and used it to kill the baby."
Asked how the baby was actually killed, Binta said, "It was about
midnight that the act was carried out. I told my friend, Hindatu that
I would not want to witness the killing of my own child.
"Hindatu was the one who fed my baby with the poison. She forced him
to drink the poison. When she wanted to do it, I went into the other
room and took a drug, Valium 5 and slept off. I woke up to see that my
baby was dead. We wrapped the dead body with clothes."
News of the heinous crime soon filtered out and the partners in crime
were apprehended.
Binta spoke further, "Unknown to us, the ward head had heard about the
news that my baby was killed. He quickly went to Danja Police Station,
reported the incident and we were arrested by the police."
In her own confession, Hindatu Umar said, "I am a prostitute. My
friend, Binta delivered a baby boy and we have a law by the ward head
in the village of Danja that he doesn't want any unwanted pregnancy
and that any of us prostitutes who gets pregnant should leave the
village and deliver the baby in the next village.
"We still enjoy our job as prostitutes and so, we both decided to kill
the baby. I suggested to her to kill the baby. We went into the street
and bought local rat killer and by midnight I gave the baby the poison
and he drank the poison and died instantly. I took the container and
dropped it in the toilet. Later the news spread and policemen from
Danja Police Station arrested us."
Katsina State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Hurdi told Sunday
Sun that "it was when the news spread the following morning that the
ward head reported the incident to Danja Police Station and this led
to the arrest of the two suspects, Binta Shuaibu and Hindatu Umar who
are currently at the State CID under investigation."
CP Hurdi added that the baby had been buried, while the mother of the
baby, Binta and her partner, both of whom conspired to commit the
murder, would face the wrath of the law.
The commissioner said after investigation had been concluded, the
suspects would be charged to court.
