The baby stolen from the Baptist Hospital in Ekoundoum, Yaounde , last Friday, has been found at a private clinic in Nkoabang, Mefou and Afamba Division.
The baby was located in the private clinic last Tuesday thanks to a tip-off from a nurse to the forces of law and order who had circulated the photo of the missing baby on social media. The baby thief is said to have failed to convince authorities of the clinic by her narrative that she had been sent by her sister with the child for consultation after she ran a temperature.
The police who had been notified, swooped on the clinic, arrested the baby thief and took the child named Diffo Kesia back to the Baptist Hospital in Ekoundoum where it was handed over to its overjoyed parents, Jostelle Mafou and Stephanol Diffo, amid celebration by onlookers.
Sharing her sad story with the press earlier, Jostelle said she had befriended a stranger who came to visit another patient with whom she shared the room after her delivery.
“I gave birth on Friday at 1 a.m. under good conditions. They told me that the room where women are hospitalized was so full. They took me to the waiting room with other women. The room was crowded. In the morning, they cleared the room. I was left alone with my baby and another woman who had undergone surgery. Another woman, supposedly a friend of the one who had surgery, came around 2 p.m. on Saturday. We spent the day together, we got acquainted. Around 6:48 p.m., I said I was going to eat.
They prohibited eating in the delivery room. If you want to eat, you have to eat in another corridor. While I was eating, the supposed friend of the woman who had surgery came to inspect me for about 5 minutes. A minute after she disappeared, it was the woman who had surgery who came to ask me if they had given me the baby,” she recounted.
Jostelle pleaded with the alleged baby thief to return her child. “I beg you, please bring my baby back. God will bless you with triplets,” she exclaimed.
Her cry was answered by God three days after when they found the child safe and sound.
The identity of the baby thief has not yet been revealed, but she is currently in police custody. Reports say the woman had introduced herself to the Baptist Hospital of Ekoumdoum in Yaoundé, as a friend of the woman who shared the hospital room with Jostelle.
Returning from eating and not finding her baby, she accused the hospital authorities of conspiring with the woman to rob her of her baby. With the relocation of the missing baby, the Baptist hospital has been vindicated of the charge of collusion.
