It was a day of mixed feelings as a two day old
baby abandoned by the roadside over the weekend
was picked up by a good Samaritan who named the
baby after late philanthropist and business mogul,
Molade Okoya-Thomas.
We learnt that the abandoned baby was first
seen at about 4pm on Sunday at Marina, close to
Wema Bank Plc. A good spirited Nigerian who runs
a non-governmental organisation,NGO, in Lagos
picked up the baby.
The baby was taken to the family support unit of the
Nigeria Police Force, Adeniji Adele Division and on
Monday handed over to the Lagos State
Government.
According to the President of Afribaby Initiative, Dr.
Oscar Odiboh, the man who saved the abandoned
baby said he was called by somebody who first
sighted the baby and he had to rush to the scene in
order to save the baby.
Oscar affirmed, “I got a distress call on Sunday that
a baby had been abandoned by the roadside at
Marina. I left everything I was doing and rushed to
the scene.
“While I was heading for the scene, I contacted the
police and some medical personnel to be on
standby. On getting there, I discovered that the baby
was abandoned inside a kiosk. People were gathered
and just watching, cursing the mother. Nobody
dared to go near the baby. A few minutes after I got
there, the police arrived and I was allowed to carry
the baby. We took him to the station and I handed
him over to the family support unit of the police at
the Adeniji Adele Police Station.”
On the choice of Okoya-Thomas as the name for the
baby, Oscar said he just wanted to immortalize the
late philanthropist who very much supported child
welfare.
He noted, “Knowing that the police would transfer
the baby to the appropriate government agency, and
in order to create an identity for the baby, I decided
to name him after Chief Okoya-Thomas.
“Coincidentally, I was wearing one of his burial
attires on that day and the baby whom we have
adjudged to be about two days old, might have been
born the same day he was buried.”