Could a mentally deranged woman, Josephine Joseph, have been impregnated by a soldier as she alleged? Now that she had been delivered of a baby boy on Friday, the Plateau State Police is set to unmask the mysterious man who impregnated her.
Joseph, who appeared to be in her late 30s, said she hailed from Adikpo in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State. She claimed that she was impregnated “by a soldier who comes and goes.”
According to Miss Brenda Okpala, whom the
woman fondly called ‘friend’, Joseph has been staying at a nearby stream
in Gura Logyang, Abattoir area of Jos since August. Though she came
there unnoticed and has never bothered anybody, she became fond of
Okpala and both became friends. But sometime in January, Okpala noticed
that Joseph’s tummy was protruding.
“I am always close to her because she comes to me regularly to request for one thing or the other. We call ourselves my friend and she is known in the neighbourhood as Josephine (Joseph). One day I noticed what appeared to be pregnancy. I drew my mother’s attention to it and she confirmed it,” Okpala said.
Okpala said that she reported her finding to the Welfare Department of Jos South Local Government Area and an officer from the department was asked to see Joseph. But the officer said nothing could be done since the pregnancy was in its infancy.
As the pregnancy progressed, people in the neighbourhood, especially women, took up the mad woman’s responsibilities. But the community noticed that a strange man was always coming in the dead of the night to disturb her
Mr. Sunday Choji, a landlord in the area, who allowed Joseph to erect a shed at the back of his house, said there were times the woman would shout at night to resist an unknown person.
“She will be shouting on top of her voice as if she was struggling with someone and we will hear her say ‘Please leave me oh, leave me please.’ When we come out we will not see anybody. So, we mounted surveillance for the culprit. The neighbours even exchanged phone numbers so that whoever saw the person coming to disturb her could alert others. But unfortunately we did not catch him. When we asked her what the person wanted, she would say ‘he said he wanted sex,’ ” he said.
Okpala said that even few days before Joseph gave birth to the baby, the strange man was still coming to see her as she complained of severe body pains.
According to Okpala, “Around 6.30pm on Friday, I was called to a spot at abattoir, behind the former Change Night Club where she was delivered of the baby with the assistance of passers-by.
“As I arrived the scene, the placenta was yet to come out. One woman was running away with the baby on a motorcycle. I ran after her and snatched the baby from her and with the assistance of some soldiers, I took the mother and the baby to Plateau State Specialist Hospital.
At the hospital, Joseph, a native of Tiv, Benue State, later told some of her kinsmen who came around that a soldier actually impregnated her, adding that the said soldier had visited her. Although Okpala and other patients in the maternity ward said they did not see any soldier, Joseph insisted that the “mysterious” soldier visited her on Saturday morning.
A welfare officer from Jos South Local Government Area, Mrs. Alice Zang, told PUNCH METRO that the woman and her baby were now the responsibility of her department until her relatives were found.
The Operations Officer of the Special Task Force in Jos, Lt.-Col. Kayode Ogundele, who dispatched a senior officer to interview the woman at the hospital, told PUNCH METRO that Joseph’s claim could not be verified because of her mental state.
Ogundele said, “If you check the time she delivered, she must have been pregnant before January when the task force took up duties in Jos. We have checked our records and did not find a name like the one she gave.
“Moreover, she kept giving different names and mentioning soldier, police.”
However, our correspondent reported that Joseph consistently mentioned a soldier’s name and there was no time she made reference to either police or any other force.
Meanwhile, the police have invited all those concerned to give statements on the matter. Investigating Police Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Idoko Audu, said that the police would get to the root of the matter.
The police said the soldier’s name was being kept under wrap in order not to jeopardise investigation.
The Assistant Coordinator of a non-governmental organisation, the Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment in Nigerian Society, Mrs. Nosa Tukuru, said, “The said soldier if her story is true, could have given her a fake name. I think the police should do a proper investigation.”
“I am always close to her because she comes to me regularly to request for one thing or the other. We call ourselves my friend and she is known in the neighbourhood as Josephine (Joseph). One day I noticed what appeared to be pregnancy. I drew my mother’s attention to it and she confirmed it,” Okpala said.
Okpala said that she reported her finding to the Welfare Department of Jos South Local Government Area and an officer from the department was asked to see Joseph. But the officer said nothing could be done since the pregnancy was in its infancy.
As the pregnancy progressed, people in the neighbourhood, especially women, took up the mad woman’s responsibilities. But the community noticed that a strange man was always coming in the dead of the night to disturb her
Mr. Sunday Choji, a landlord in the area, who allowed Joseph to erect a shed at the back of his house, said there were times the woman would shout at night to resist an unknown person.
“She will be shouting on top of her voice as if she was struggling with someone and we will hear her say ‘Please leave me oh, leave me please.’ When we come out we will not see anybody. So, we mounted surveillance for the culprit. The neighbours even exchanged phone numbers so that whoever saw the person coming to disturb her could alert others. But unfortunately we did not catch him. When we asked her what the person wanted, she would say ‘he said he wanted sex,’ ” he said.
Okpala said that even few days before Joseph gave birth to the baby, the strange man was still coming to see her as she complained of severe body pains.
According to Okpala, “Around 6.30pm on Friday, I was called to a spot at abattoir, behind the former Change Night Club where she was delivered of the baby with the assistance of passers-by.
“As I arrived the scene, the placenta was yet to come out. One woman was running away with the baby on a motorcycle. I ran after her and snatched the baby from her and with the assistance of some soldiers, I took the mother and the baby to Plateau State Specialist Hospital.
At the hospital, Joseph, a native of Tiv, Benue State, later told some of her kinsmen who came around that a soldier actually impregnated her, adding that the said soldier had visited her. Although Okpala and other patients in the maternity ward said they did not see any soldier, Joseph insisted that the “mysterious” soldier visited her on Saturday morning.
A welfare officer from Jos South Local Government Area, Mrs. Alice Zang, told PUNCH METRO that the woman and her baby were now the responsibility of her department until her relatives were found.
The Operations Officer of the Special Task Force in Jos, Lt.-Col. Kayode Ogundele, who dispatched a senior officer to interview the woman at the hospital, told PUNCH METRO that Joseph’s claim could not be verified because of her mental state.
Ogundele said, “If you check the time she delivered, she must have been pregnant before January when the task force took up duties in Jos. We have checked our records and did not find a name like the one she gave.
“Moreover, she kept giving different names and mentioning soldier, police.”
However, our correspondent reported that Joseph consistently mentioned a soldier’s name and there was no time she made reference to either police or any other force.
Meanwhile, the police have invited all those concerned to give statements on the matter. Investigating Police Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Idoko Audu, said that the police would get to the root of the matter.
The police said the soldier’s name was being kept under wrap in order not to jeopardise investigation.
The Assistant Coordinator of a non-governmental organisation, the Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment in Nigerian Society, Mrs. Nosa Tukuru, said, “The said soldier if her story is true, could have given her a fake name. I think the police should do a proper investigation.”
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