The ‘quack doctor ‘ who allegedly aborted the four-month pregnancy of 12-year-old Bayelsa State girl, identified simply as Queen, has been arrested by the police.
The minor was allegedly raped serially and impregnated by her father, Bamekpa Ademe, who is currently being held at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Bayelsa police command.
The police later launched manhunt on the man who crudely aborted the minor’s pregnancy under the instruction of Bamekpa.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Asinim Butswat, Friday, identified the arrested quack doctor as Mr. Fredrick Osai, who is 38 years old.
Butswat said Osai was arrested at his community in Otiokpoti, Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.
The abused teenager earlier said her life became more traumatic when her father commenced the process of aborting the pregnancy.
She said the method was crude and opened a chapter of health problems in her life.
She said: “My father after knowing I was pregnant took me to do an abortion. He took me to Elebele and handed me over to his female friend called Peace. Peace then took me to Otu-Aba. The place was an ordinary house.
“They didn’t allow me see the process but I saw the instruments. It was very painful. After that day, I started bleeding because he didn’t abort the pregnancy completely. I was taken back to Otu-Aba on December 5 and from there we went to Otu-Asiga to flush the remaining one.
“I discovered later that my body system had been messed up. I noticed I was no longer menstruating. It was just recently that I was taken to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) where an operation was done on me with something like a container inserted into me. They called it a minor operation. I went back to remove the container”.
Having arrested Osai, the PPRO said the attention of the police was focused on apprehending Peace who took the minor to Osai for the abortion.
But the teenager’s nephew David Apigi, said unknown to the police commissioner, some members of the team in charge of the case were demanding money from the victim’s family to effect the arrest.
He said such persons even threatened to dismiss the matter and release the suspects if the victim’s family failed to give them money to conclude their investigations.
He said: “The first time we met with the Commissioner of Police, we told him that the policemen in charge of the case were complaining of lack of logistics. He promised to make logistics available to the team.
“I learnt that they collected money from our people before undertaking the mission to arrest the doctor. They are now asking us to bring N20, 000 to enable them go and arrest the lady. They even threatened to leave the matter and release the suspects if we failed to bring the money.
“Now, there is a rumour in our community that the suspect has been asked to bring N400, 000 for the case to be quashed. We are asking the commissioner to monitor what some of the persons handling this matter is doing”.
Butswat, however, said the police were fully committed in getting to the root of the matter adding that all the persons involved in the case would be arrested.
He said: “We are still investigating and we will surely arrest the lady. The command is taking the matter seriously and we have achieved a lot within a short period. We will arrest everybody involved and charge them to court.”
Meanwhile there is jubilation in the Imiringi community, Ogbia, following the arrest of Bamekpa. Apigi said people were happy that the alleged randy man had finally bitten more than he could chew.
“Many people are happy that the law has finally caught up with Bamekpa. They are begging the police to diligently prosecute the matter and ensure that justice is done. They are saluting our courage because we stood our ground to challenge him.
“We are also happy that the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police have shown interest in the matter,” he said.
