Rita Enemuru, Reporting
Two years after being told that her newborn daughter had died following a Caesarean section in Warri, Plateau State indigene Abigail Henry received a phone call from a former house help referring to “this your baby”. A subsequent video appeared to show a child Abigail believes could be her daughter. The development has led to a police investigation into the circumstances surrounding the child’s birth, the events following Abigail’s surgery and documents reportedly presented as evidence of a transfer of parental rights. The child is currently in the custody of Delta State’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs, pending efforts to establish her biological parentage. The couple involved have declined to comment. CRIMES CHRONICLERS’ RITA ENEMURU brings the intriguing report:
TWO years after being told that her newborn daughter had died following a Caesarean section in Warri, Plateau State indigene Abigail Henry received a phone call that challenged everything she thought she knew about her child.
A house help reportedly told her that “this your baby” was giving her concern, prompting Abigail to seek clarification. She subsequently received a video of a child whom she believes could be the daughter she had been told was dead.
The discovery has triggered a police investigation in Delta State following allegations concerning the circumstances surrounding the child’s birth and disappearance, the treatment Abigail allegedly received after her Caesarean section, and documents purportedly showing that she relinquished her parental rights.
The child is currently in the custody of the Delta State Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which says DNA testing may be necessary to establish whether she is Abigail’s biological daughter.
The couple at the centre of the allegations have declined to comment, while the police have yet to provide a detailed public account of the investigation.
A pregnancy, a promise and a journey to Warri
For two years, Miss Abigail Henry lived with the pain of believing that the daughter she had carried for nine months had died shortly after she gave birth through a Caesarean section.
The 26-year-old Plateau State indigene said she was 23 when the incident occurred in 2023. She told Crimes Chroniclers by telephone on Monday, September 14, 2026, that her ordeal began in her village in Plateau State after she became pregnant.
According to Abigail, the man she identified as the father of the pregnancy denied paternity and disappeared, leaving her to return to her parents for support.
Rather than terminate the pregnancy, Abigail said her father advised her to keep the baby. She followed his advice and continued with the pregnancy, hoping to find a way to care for herself and her unborn child.
Months later, she said a woman from her village, Bridget, who lived in Warri, Delta State, approached her and encouraged her to relocate to Warri.
Bridget, according to Abigail, promised to help her find employment so she could earn money to support herself and her unborn child.
Abigail accepted the offer and travelled to Warri, where she stayed with Bridget in Kosini, Warri South Local Government Area.
It was while she was there, Abigail said, that Bridget met Mrs Abigail Igbiaye, a pastor with a church at Jeddo.
She said the two women had a conversation which she did not hear because she was not close to them at the time.
However, when Bridget returned, Abigail said she was told that Mrs Igbiaye had a job for her as a house help.
She was also reportedly told that she needed to take passport photographs before commencing the job because an account would be opened for her.
Having never experienced such an arrangement before, Abigail said she assumed it was a normal requirement for employment.
She recalled taking 10 passport photographs. Bridget collected them and they returned home at about 7pm before the photographs were handed back to her.
The following day, however, Abigail said she counted the photographs before putting them in her bag and discovered that only eight remained.
She questioned Bridget about the missing two photographs but, according to Abigail, Bridget denied knowing what had happened to them.
“After counting it, I realised that two were missing from it. I asked Bridget why the passport is just eight copies instead of the 10 I took. She said she had no idea that she handed the passport to me completely,” Abigail recounted.
Not long afterwards, Abigail said Mrs Igbiaye approached her with a different arrangement.
Rather than begin working immediately, she was told that Mrs Igbiaye would take care of her until she delivered her baby.
Abigail said she accepted the offer and that Mrs Igbiaye subsequently began accompanying her to Vicah Clinic and Maternity Hospital at Poloko Market in Warri for antenatal care.
She said they routinely visited the hospital together and that, during the visits, Mrs Igbiaye frequently had private discussions with the doctor.
At the time, Abigail said, she did not suspect that anything was wrong.
The Caesarean section
As her pregnancy approached full term, Abigail said she and Mrs Igbiaye went to the hospital for what she believed was another routine check-up.
According to Abigail, Mrs Igbiaye left her in the waiting area and went into the doctor’s office to speak with him. After the discussion, she said they came out and instructed her to follow them.
Abigail alleged that she was taken towards the theatre area, where a doctor whose name she did not know administered injections.
She said the injections were followed by the breaking of her waters and that she was subsequently taken into the theatre.
“I was in the ninth month but was still some days away from delivery. They took me to the theatre area and the doctor gave me injections that caused my water to burst,” she said.
“After that, they took me to the theatre and before I knew what was happening, my two legs could not carry me again. They carried me to the operating table and operated on me and carried the child and gave [her] to a nurse.”
Abigail said she remained conscious enough to know that she had delivered a baby girl.
According to her account, the baby was crying when a nurse took the child away to be cleaned.
She said the nurse asked her the sex of the baby and she replied that it was a girl.
Abigail further alleged that, before the baby was taken away, the child was handed to Mrs Igbiaye inside the theatre.
“That was the last day I saw my child,” she said.
Abigail said the doctor completed the operation before she was moved to the general ward.
She alleged that she subsequently experienced severe pain and heavy bleeding and believed that she was not receiving adequate post-operative care.
“Blood soaked the bed,” she recalled.
A nurse eventually came to attend to her. Abigail said she immediately asked about her baby, only to be told that her “people” had already taken the child away.
Later that day, at about 2pm, Bridget reportedly arrived at the hospital.
According to Abigail, Bridget told her that the baby had died.
The news left her confused because, she said, the baby had been crying when she was taken away for cleaning and she had not been aware of any illness affecting the child.
“Around 2pm that day, Bridget came and told me we lost the child,” Abigail said.
“I was surprised and asked how, because the child cried a lot. I said the baby was not sick, so what happened? She said she had no idea what happened.”
After delivering the news, Abigail said Bridget left and did not return that day. Mrs Igbiaye, she added, also did not return.
Abandoned after surgery
Four days after the operation, Abigail said Mrs Igbiaye and Bridget returned to the hospital.
But instead of taking her to the place where she had been promised employment or back to Bridget’s residence, she said they took her to an uncompleted building.
Abigail said she questioned them about why she was being taken there and was told they would return.
She also asked about the promised job and the place where she had previously stayed with Bridget.
According to Abigail, she was told that they did not want people to know that she had given birth and that the baby had died.
She said the two women eventually left her there.
The building, according to Abigail, had no doors, windows or concrete floor. She said it was in a bushy area and had no bed or food.
With nowhere else to go, she said she used her clothes as a makeshift bed.
Abigail said her condition continued to deteriorate and that the surgical wound was still bleeding.
She said she used pieces of clothing to cover the wound.
She remained at the building for about three weeks, during which she said she begged for money on the streets to survive.
Eventually, she managed to raise enough money to travel back to her parents in Plateau State.
The journey home was itself traumatic.
Abigail said the surgical wound reopened during the journey, but she managed to reach home.
On arrival, she said her parents took her from one hospital to another in an attempt to restore her health.
She added that they had to borrow money for additional treatment, including traditional treatment, before her condition improved.
‘But this your baby…’
It was during her recovery that Abigail made a telephone call that would dramatically change her understanding of what had happened to her child.
She said she had exchanged numbers with Mrs Igbiaye’s house help before the incident.
Because Mrs Igbiaye had allegedly collected the phone she had bought for Abigail, she said she did not have a personal phone at the time.
When she eventually managed to contact the house help, Abigail said the woman made a statement that immediately caught her attention.
“She said, ‘Abigail, this your baby is giving me headache oo,’” Abigail recalled.
“I asked her, ‘My baby?’ and she answered yes.”
For Abigail, those words raised a possibility she had never imagined.
If the baby had died, as she had been told at the hospital, whose baby was the house help referring to?
Abigail said she pleaded with the woman to take care of the child for her.
Later, after obtaining a larger phone, Abigail said she asked the house help to send her a photograph of the baby.
The woman eventually sent a video.
It was through that video, Abigail said, that she came to believe that the child she had been told was dead might still be alive.
“That was when I saw that my baby was alive,” she said.
Police investigation begins
The discovery prompted Abigail to return to Warri this month in search of answers and a way to recover the child.
She reported the matter at the Ekpan Area Command of the Nigeria Police, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
According to Abigail, the police invited Mrs Igbiaye and her husband, who she said is a lawyer and co-pastor.
She alleged that Mrs Igbiaye did not honour the first invitation, while a subsequent invitation was also extended to her husband.
Abigail said Mrs Igbiaye eventually appeared at the police station and appeared surprised to see her.
According to Abigail, Mrs Igbiaye said she had believed Abigail was dead.
Abigail further alleged that Mrs Igbiaye acknowledged that the child was in her care but maintained that Abigail had relinquished her parental rights to her and her husband.
The couple reportedly produced documents which they claimed Abigail had signed, with copies of her passport photographs attached.
Abigail denied signing the documents.
She said the police examined the documents and noticed that the two passport photographs she had earlier discovered were missing appeared to have been attached to them.
She further said the police compared the signature on the documents with the signature on a statement she had written at the station and considered the signatures different.
Crimes Chroniclers could not independently verify the authenticity of the documents or the circumstances in which they were produced.
The disputed documents and signatures have reportedly become part of the police investigation.
Following the development, the child was taken into protective custody, with the Delta State Ministry of Women’s Affairs becoming involved in efforts to establish the child’s parentage.
Abigail said she wants her daughter back.
“I want my child back. I am pleading with the police to try all they can so they can get my child for me,” she said.
Abigail also told Crimes Chroniclers that the doctor who performed the Caesarean section at Vicah Clinic had been arrested and was in police custody.
That claim could not be independently confirmed by Crimes Chroniclers at the time of publication.
Women’s Affairs calls for DNA test
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the Delta State Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Asaba, Mrs Oghenevwe Agas, confirmed to Crimes Chroniclers by telephone on Monday, September 14, 2026, that the matter had been brought to the attention of her office.
Agas said the ministry became involved after the matter was reported to the police and an order was issued for the arrest of the couple.
She said the couple initially evaded arrest but were eventually tracked down and brought to the police station.
According to her, they were later taken to the Delta State Police Headquarters in Asaba, where they were interviewed before the case was returned to the Ekpan Area Command, where it originated, for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Agas said the child was currently in the custody of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs while the police investigation continued and the child’s biological parentage was being established.
She said Abigail was known to be the mother of a child whom the couple had reportedly claimed was dead, making DNA testing necessary to establish whether the child currently in custody was the same child Abigail had delivered.
“The matter was brought to us last week. When the matter was reported to the police, an order was given for the arrest of the couple, but I think they evaded the arrest,” Agas said.
“They were eventually tracked down and brought into the police station. I’m also aware that they’ve been brought to Asaba, to the police headquarters, and they were interviewed. The matter was taken back to Ekpan Area Command, where the matter originated, for prosecution.”
Agas explained that the role of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was different from that of the police.
She said her office was primarily concerned with establishing the identity and biological parentage of the child before any decision could be made about where the child should be placed.
“Presently, the baby is under the custody of Women’s Affairs pending when the police will finish their investigation and the actual parenthood of the child will be determined,” she said.
“But from what we know, Abigail is the mother of a child that the couple claimed has died, so I believe to further prove the parenthood, they will have to do a DNA test.”
Agas added that a DNA examination would help determine whether the child in custody was the same baby the couple had reportedly said had died.
“A DNA test will show if the child is the child they claimed died or it’s another child,” she said.
Allegation concerning post-operative care
The General Secretary also raised concerns about Abigail’s condition following the Caesarean section and the circumstances under which she was allegedly left without support.
Agas said she was aware of an allegation described to her as attempted murder arising from the treatment Abigail allegedly received after the operation.
She said Abigail had undergone a Caesarean section and was allegedly not provided with adequate post-operative care before being taken to another location.
“I also know that there was even an attempted murder on her because she had the baby through the Caesarean section and she was not given proper care and she was left to die because she was abandoned somewhere,” Agas said.
According to Agas, the authorities were examining separate aspects of the matter, including the allegations concerning Abigail’s treatment and those relating to the child.
“There are two cases on this matter, which are attempted murder and that of baby thievery,” she said.
“The police will handle the criminal side of the case. Ours is to confirm the parenthood of the child before we can give her back to the real mother.”
Crimes Chroniclers reports that the allegations made by Abigail and the comments attributed to Agas remain subject to police investigation and, where applicable, judicial determination.
Igbiaye, husband decline comment
Crimes Chroniclers made efforts to contact Mrs Abigail Igbiaye on Monday, September 14, 2026, to obtain her response to the allegations and give her an opportunity to explain her account of what happened to Abigail and the child.
She ended the call, saying she was in a meeting and would call back, after contacting her lawyer.
Several subsequent attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.
In a separate attempt to obtain a response from her husband, Solomon Igbiaye Esq., Stonix News contacted him and he confirmed his identity.
However, after learning the reason for the call, he declined to comment on the matter, telling the reporter that she was speaking to the wrong person.
Further attempts to reach him for clarification were unsuccessful.
Crimes Chroniclers also contacted the officer in charge of the Ekpan Area Command for an official police response.
The officer declined to comment on the case.
Crimes Chroniclers also contacted the Police Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, on Monday.
He said he would get back to the newspaper.
As of Tuesday evening, 24 hours later, he responded: “I don’t have those details on my table.”
Posers For The Delta State Police Command
The case raises several questions that the Nigeria Police Force, Delta State Command, must answer transparently:
- What exactly happened to Abigail’s baby immediately after the Caesarean section?
- Who authorised the removal of the newborn from the mother’s care?
- Was the baby officially recorded as having died, and where is the relevant medical/death documentation?
- Was any post-mortem examination conducted if the child was genuinely reported dead?
- Who signed or prepared the documents allegedly showing that Abigail relinquished her parental rights?
- How did the two allegedly missing passport photographs end up attached to those documents?
- What forensic examination has been carried out on the disputed signatures and documents?
- What is the current status of the doctor allegedly arrested in connection with the case?
- What charges, if any, have been filed against those under investigation?
- Most importantly, when will the DNA test be conducted, and will its result be made available to the relevant parties?
Posers for human rights activists
Also, a case like this requires the services of human rights organisations and child-protection advocates, who should also be asking:
- Who will protect Abigail’s rights while the investigation continues?
- Does the case disclose possible violations of her rights to dignity, bodily integrity, informed consent and access to proper medical care?
- Was a vulnerable pregnant woman potentially exploited because she lacked financial and social support?
- Why was a woman recovering from major surgery allegedly abandoned in an uncompleted building?
- Who will ensure that the child is protected from further trauma while her biological parentage is being established?
- Will an independent body monitor the police investigation to ensure that no evidence is suppressed or manipulated?
- Should the disputed medical records, birth records and other documents be independently examined?
- What legal and psychosocial support is available to Abigail as she waits for answers?
- If the allegations are established, who should be held accountable — and what systemic safeguards are needed to prevent similar cases?
The central question is simple but profound: How could a mother be told that her newborn had died, only to discover years later that a child who may be hers was alive?
The answer should not depend on competing stories. It should come from medical records, forensic evidence, DNA, witness testimony and a transparent investigation.
Last line……
For Abigail, however, the matter is more than a police investigation or a dispute over documents, signatures and DNA.
It is the search for a daughter she says she carried for nine months, delivered through a Caesarean section, mourned after being told she had died, and later discovered might still be alive.
Three years after she was separated from the child, Abigail is waiting for the police investigation and the proposed DNA test to answer the question that has haunted her since that day at the hospital: whether the little girl she saw in the video is the daughter she was told she had lost.
Until that question is answered, her search for her child remains unfinished.
