Woman delivers baby girl in keke Marwa in Lagos

A woman, Mrs. Mutiat Aileru has delivered a baby girl in a tricycle in Abule-Egba area of Lagos. The woman delivered the baby at about 5p.m. The reporter was walking by the roadside near Awori bus stop when a woman suddenly ran out of the commercial tricycle, Keke Marwa and raised the alarm that her relative was delivering a baby inside the tricycle they had boarded.

She had called for urgent help from the owners of the shops by the road and women promptly removed the wrappers on them to shield the woman in labour. Immediately the woman was delivered on the back sit of the tricycle,the reporter quickly took photographs of the new baby, a girl. The women rushed to pick her up, some cleaning her, others cuddling and others yet bringing accessories to assist in the delivery. Some even heaped verbal invectives at the reporter for daring to take the baby’s picture.

“Are you mad! Why are you taking the baby’s pictures. Who you be? If you are not careful we will beat you up here. Why would you take the photograph of a woman delivering in a tricycle? You don’t even know how to do your work.” Many of them said. There would have been a mob action, had the reporter not feigned calling on the police to come to the area. It was then the mob gathering against the reporter receded.

While the women were still busy attending to the mother and her baby, the reporter took on the driver of the tricycle in camera. Asked how the journey of the miraculous delivery began, Prophet Ariyo Ajibola of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Erimo in Ijaiye-Ojokoro, who drove the tricycle, said: “It was at Ikeja computer village that the two women that followed the mother approached me to beg me to assist them to carry a pregnant woman to a hospital in Abule Egba.

At first I was reluctant but when they began to plead, I obliged. Moreso, as a prophet, I had an inner conviction that there won’t be any problem. And I took them in. But when we got past Agege, the pregnant woman began to moan in seriuos labour. She became hysterical and her people began to panic. But I was relaxed and praying silently for God’s intervention, I was calming the women down. At a point, I took one-way to beat the gridlock on the road.

Then suddenly I heard a loud noise of a rushing liquid, when we just left Abule-Egba bus stop and the other women began to raise the alarm that a baby had just been delivered. And they began calling for help. As a man and a Christian, I just thank God for what has happened. It is just a miracle and I will give a special thanksgiving to God once I get to the church for an evening programme we have today. I asked them to pay N1000 but they offered N700 and I accepted but even if they don’t pay me, I won’t be unhappy.”

Daily Sun also spoke to the mother of the baby after she had been cleaned up and positioned well in the passengers’ seat of the tricycle, feeling weak, she told her story: “ I am Latifat Aileru. I am from Ibadan and my husband from from Kwara. We live in Ipokia. I came to meet my husband’s people in Oshodi. I am so happy that I delivered the baby safely.”

By WOLE BALOGUN of Sun Newspapers