BREAKING: Abuja Woman Accuses Doctor In Maternity Clinic of Kidnapping, Trafficking Her Child

An Abuja resident, Mrs Eunice Bright-Ekwok, has accused a local hospital and a medical practitioner, Dr Timothy Zeje, of kidnapping and trafficking one of her newborn twin children.

Mrs Bright-Ekwok, who began her antenatal care at Divine Rain Maternity Clinic in April 2022, said she was informed via ultrasound that she was expecting twins. However, she was not allowed to take the scan result home. Though upset—wanting to show the scan to her husband, Bartholomew Bright-Ekwok—she left without it.

In May, she returned for a second scan. After persistent requests, the clinic reluctantly allowed her to take the scan result temporarily, with instructions to return it the following day. She complied.

“I went to the nurses to be able to convince them to carry my scan result home.

And they asked me that as I’m going, tomorrow morning I should return it back. I showed my husband everything, and the following day, I brought the scan result back to them. “

As her due date approached and she had not yet gone into labour, Mrs Bright-Ekwok consulted Dr Zeje about the possibility of a Caesarean section. The procedure was approved, but she noticed that hospital staff only prepared clothes for one baby. When she enquired, she was told that one of the twins had shown signs of distress on the scan and would require oxygen support after birth.

“The doctor said that they will put oxygen on one of the twins after I gave birth to them,” Bright recalled, “they said that the child’s breathing is too high”.

During the delivery, her husband was reportedly denied access to the operating room. Mrs Bright was administered anaesthesia but recalls hearing nurses debate whether to inject her shoulder or spine.

“I was hearing the nurses arguing that the doctor said ‘I should give her injection on her spinal cord.’ One said ‘no, on her shoulder’. The doctor was there and did not say anything. I was confused because they had given me injection on my spinal cord already. Why do you people want to give me injection on my shoulder? Eventually, they forced me and gave me the injection on my shoulder. Then I couldn’t remember anything.”

After delivery, only one baby was presented to her husband. Confused, he asked for the second child but received no explanation. When Mrs Bright regained consciousness and enquired about her second baby, she, too, was told nothing.

Later, Dr Zeje advised the couple to transfer the surviving baby to a specialist hospital in Gwagwalada, claiming the child needed urgent oxygen treatment. The baby was taken there by Mr Bright and a relative, while Mrs Bright remained at Divine Rain.

“The doctor looked at the baby. He said, Kai, let them put oxygen on this child. If not, this baby will die.

Immediately they fixed oxygen on this child. After over one hour, he said, if this child remains here, it will die. It will not survive.”

A nurse eventually told Mrs Bright about her missing child,

“She said ‘doctor say nobody should tell you o,” Bright recalled. “‘But I’m doing ‘amebo’ for you’. She said that the second baby is dead”.

When asked for confirmation, the nurse reportedly told her that “the baby had scattered.” Repeated requests to see the body were denied.

Shortly afterward, Dr Zeje discharged her. When she again demanded proof of the child’s death, she was again told the baby was dead and the body could not be shown.

Deeply suspicious and troubled, Mrs Bright began to suspect foul play. Later, when Dr Zeje announced the birth of his own twin sons, Mrs Bright visited his wife at Abuja Municipal Area Council Hospital and was stunned by the baby’s resemblance to her surviving child.

“I said, ‘Why does this child look like mine?’” she recalled. “I managed to sit with the children on my lap and convinced her to remove the baby’s cap. If I didn’t know what clothes my child wore that day, I wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart.”

She shared her suspicions with her husband, who was initially sceptical. He later attempted to befriend Dr Zeje’s wife under the pretence of needing patronage to investigate further.

The family’s lawyer, F Baba Isah, stated that two DNA tests were arranged, with one allegedly funded by the doctor and a local NGO.

However, one lab has refused to release the results, while the second has yet to conduct the test.

“We’re stuck,” Isah said. “The police accepted that DNA testing is the only way to resolve this, but there’s no transparency.”

In a new development, Dr Zeje has reportedly filed defamation charges against Mrs Bright as of last month.

“How can you claim defamation when no DNA result has been released?” Isah asked.

He has since petitioned the Inspector General of Police, the Nigerian Senate, and the Medical and Dental Council to investigate the doctor and verify his credentials.