Nearly three decades after rescue operations began, harmful traditional beliefs continue to target infants after maternal deaths and multiple births in communities around Abuja and neighbouring Niger State.
For decades, many Nigerians believed the killing of infants over harmful traditional beliefs had disappeared with history.
The story of Scottish missionary Mary Slessor, celebrated for confronting the killing of twins in southern Nigeria in the late 19th century, became widely regarded as the turning point in ending one of the country’s darkest cultural practices.
But a Pinnacle Daily investigation has uncovered a disturbing reality.
Less than two hours from Nigeria’s seat of power, newborn babies are still being condemned to death in communities surrounding the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) because of long-held traditional beliefs. Some are buried alive alongside their dead mothers. Others are abandoned in the bush to die.
Some are poisoned shortly after birth. Others are secretly sacrificed in rituals believed to appease local deities or bring prosperity to their communities.
Their stories are rarely reported. Their deaths are hardly documented. And for many years, the practice remained hidden behind a wall of silence, fear and culture.
To establish whether the reports were true, Pinnacle Daily travelled to Vine Heritage Home Foundation, a children’s home located along the Kuje-Gwagwalada Road in Abuja that has quietly become a sanctuary for children rescued from infanticide and other harmful traditional practices.
What appeared at first to be an ordinary orphanage soon revealed itself to be something entirely different.
Inside the compound were babies, toddlers, teenagers and young adults whose only reason for being there was that someone had once decided they did not deserve to live.
Some had been rescued only hours after birth. Others were taken away moments before they were buried alive beside their mothers.
Many had never known the touch of the women who gave birth to them.
During interviews, Pinnacle Daily spoke with the founders of the home, survivors who escaped death as newborns and caregivers who have spent decades protecting children rejected by their own communities.
Pinnacle Daily also reviewed records documenting almost three decades of rescue operations carried out across rural communities in the Federal Capital Territory.
Those records reveal that 164 children are currently being cared for by the foundation, many of whom were rescued after being condemned under cultural practices that still exist in parts of the FCT. More than 70 per cent of them were brought to the home after their mothers died during childbirth or while nursing them, circumstances that some communities interpret as proof that the child caused the mother’s death and should be buried with her.
By The Numbers
| Finding | Figure |
|---|---|
| Communities reached through advocacy | 70 |
| Communities that have abandoned the practice | 15 |
| Communities where harmful beliefs persist | 55 |
| Children currently at Vine Heritage Home | 164 |
| Children rescued after their mothers died | More than 70% |
| First rescue mission | 1996 |
| Years of rescue work | Nearly 30 |
| Children reunited with families | 12 |
The investigation found that the death of a nursing mother is only one of several reasons infants become targets.
Children born as twins or other multiple births are still regarded as abominations in some communities.
Babies born with disabilities such as cerebral palsy or Down syndrome are considered evil by some families.
Albino children also face rejection, while even the order in which a baby’s teeth emerge has, in some cases, been used as justification for infanticide.
The stories shared with Pinnacle Daily paint a chilling picture of how centuries-old beliefs continue to be maintained, contrary to modern ideas of human rights, such as the right to life and child protection.
One survivor, now a 26-year-old university student, recounted how he had already been placed inside his mother’s grave before missionaries intervened and rescued him.
Another escaped death barely three hours after birth because his mother died during delivery.
Both are alive today because someone challenged tradition.
Yet, despite years of advocacy, government investigations and public enlightenment campaigns, children continue to arrive at Vine Heritage Home.
During the visit to the Vine Heritage Home by Pinnacle Daily, Vice-President of the centre, Stevens Olusola Ajayi, pointed to one of the newest arrivals, a baby barely six weeks old whose mother had died after childbirth.
For him, the child’s presence was proof that the practice has not disappeared.
“It is reducing, but it has not ended,” he said.
That observation is supported by the foundation’s nearly three decades of work.
Since the first rescue in 1996, its volunteers have responded to repeated calls from villages where newborns were marked for death because of circumstances surrounding their birth. What started with a single child has grown into one of Nigeria’s longest-running efforts to combat infanticide, exposing a hidden humanitarian crisis unfolding within communities located just a short drive from the nation’s capital.
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The investigation found that the practice is not confined to a handful of remote villages.
Rather, it stretches across dozens of communities in the Federal Capital Territory and neighbouring Niger State, where deeply rooted traditional beliefs continue to shape attitudes towards childbirth and newborns.
During an interview with Pinnacle Daily, the Vice-President of Vine Heritage Home Foundation, Stevens Olusola Ajayi, disclosed that the organisation has spent nearly three decades carrying out advocacy campaigns in about 70 communities affected by infanticide and other harmful traditional practices.
While the interventions have recorded significant progress, he said the battle is far from won. “Out of about 70 communities we have worked in, I can confidently say only about 15 have completely stopped the practice,” Ajayi said.
“The remaining 55 communities still hold on to these beliefs. Some no longer practise them openly, but the beliefs remain. It only takes one incident, such as the death of a mother during childbirth or the birth of a child they consider unusual, for those beliefs to resurface.”
According to Ajayi, advocacy efforts have been carried out in communities across Abaji, Gwagwalada, Kwali, Kuje, and the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), as well as in neighbouring communities in the Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State.
The affected communities include:
| Area Council | Communities |
|---|---|
| Abaji Area Council | Kpago, Gulida, Baragada, Kwakwa, Suhoi, Pogokolo, Paiko, Bassa, Gbangede, Shadadi, Baribari, Ruga, Nasarawa, Kutara, Zuhi, Gwaja, Kasha, Adagba, Kafako, Kpando, Lapai, Hulohuwo and Shipukamdu. |
| Gwagwalada Area Council | Tsoho-Kaida, Dako, Dawaki, Pete, Kwalita, Ashara, Tsako, Wuranbi, Kuturpo, Jabili, Alonwama, Wuyewuye, Kasanki, Shipipikidi and Balaki. |
| Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) | Dodo, Awana, Tepese, Makana, Gwara I, Gwara II, Deshi, Kalagba, Gwuin, Kulo and Sauka. |
| Kwali Area Council | Tungbudu, Gomani, Fuka, Golo, Lapa, Tsulogwo, Tepese, Gurugi, Sadaba, Keru, Gberegi and Kwala. |
| Kuje Area Council | Kulo, Kiyi Ganarsa, Kiyi Bassa, Chukuku, Gaube I, Buga, Gbebassa, Sabo, Chibiri and Gawu. |
| Neighbouring Niger State | Communities in Gurara Local Government Area. |
Ajayi explained that while the beliefs differ from one community to another, the consequences are often the same.
“In some communities, babies are buried with their mothers if the mother dies during childbirth because people believe the child caused her death,” he said.
“In others, twins or multiple births are considered a curse. There are places where children born with disabilities or albinism are regarded as evil, while some communities reject babies whose upper teeth appear before the lower ones.”
He said years of engagement with traditional rulers, women leaders, youth groups and religious institutions have persuaded several communities to abandon the practice. However, he warned that the persistence of the underlying beliefs means children remain at risk.
“Some communities now call us before anything happens. Others still hide it. The killings may have reduced, but the beliefs have not completely disappeared.”
For child rights advocates, that distinction is critical.
While fewer cases are reported today than three decades ago, the survival of these beliefs means every maternal death, every child born with a disability and every birth considered unusual can still place an innocent life in danger.
The Child Who Was Buried Before She Could Live
Steven Godia was never supposed to grow up. She was never expected to sit in a university lecture hall, dream of a career or tell his own story.
Long before she understood the meaning of life, others had already decided she should lose his.
When her mother died shortly after giving birth in a rural community in Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, grief quickly gave way to tradition.
Family members believed the newborn was responsible for his mother’s death. According to the custom observed by the community, the child had to die with her.
“I was told I had already been placed inside my mother’s grave before I was rescued,” the 22-year-old Sociology student at Nasarawa State University told Pinnacle Daily during an interview at Vine Heritage Home.
There was no medical investigation into what caused her mother’s death.
No attempt to determine whether she died from excessive bleeding, infection or complications during labour.
Instead, blame fell on the infant who had survived.
More than two decades later, Steven Godia struggles to understand how a helpless newborn could have been held responsible for a tragedy beyond anyone’s control.
“What happened to my mother had nothing to do with me,”s he said quietly.
“The problem was that there was no proper healthcare. There was no antenatal care, no proper medical attention and no facilities to help women during pregnancy and childbirth.”
To her, the real culprit was not culture alone. It was a failing healthcare system that continues to expose women in remote communities to preventable deaths.
“When a woman dies during childbirth, people should be asking why she died. Instead, they blame the baby.”
She has never met her mother. She never had the opportunity to know the woman whose death almost cost her own life.
Her father died a few years ago before they could reunite.
It was only in 2021 that some of his siblings located him at Vine Heritage Home after years of separation.
“I didn’t even know my family,” she said.
“One day my siblings came looking for me.”
For her, the reunion brought answers to questions she had lived with all her life.
Yet it also reminded her of everything that had been taken away by a tradition that nearly denied her the chance to live.
Today, she believes education, not fear, is the only way to end the practice.
“The belief is wrong,” she said. “No child kills his or her mother.”
Her story is one of many.
Three Hours Old… And Marked For Death
A few metres away inside the Vine Heritage Home sat another young man whose life had followed a remarkably similar path.
Steven Oluwafemi was just three hours old when his mother died after childbirth. That was enough for his community to pronounce a death sentence.
Like Steven Godia, he was accused of causing his mother’s death. The punishment was immediate.
He was to be buried alive with her. Missionaries pleaded with community members to spare the baby. They eventually succeeded.
Twenty-two years later, Oluwafemi is alive because somebody challenged a tradition that had gone unquestioned for generations.
Speaking to Pinnacle Daily, he recalled growing up at Vine Heritage Home, where he was raised alongside dozens of other children rescued under similar circumstances.
“I came here when I was only three hours old,” he said.
“My mother died during childbirth and I was supposed to be buried with her.” Unlike many children his age, he has no memories of home.
The orphanage became his family. Its caregivers became his parents.
Its children became his brothers and sisters.
After completing secondary school, he found work in a pharmacy while hoping to continue his education at the university.
Despite everything he endured, Oluwafemi says he harbours no resentment toward his community.
Instead, he believes sustained advocacy has begun changing minds.
“When I was growing up, rescue calls came almost every week,” he recalled.
“Whenever there was information that a child was about to be killed, people here would rush to the community.”
Those rescue missions often ended in tense negotiations with grieving families determined to uphold tradition.
Sometimes the babies were released. Sometimes they were not.
“Compared to those years, the practice has reduced, but it has not stopped,” he said.
That assessment was echoed repeatedly during Pinnacle Daily‘s investigation.
Community engagement, advocacy campaigns and increasing awareness have significantly reduced reported cases in several communities.
Yet children continue to arrive at Vine Heritage Home. Some are only days old. Others have barely survived difficult births.
Each new arrival serves as a reminder that while attitudes are changing, the beliefs have not disappeared completely.
For the young men who escaped death, the greatest victory is not simply that they survived.
It is that their lives have become living evidence against the myths that almost destroyed them.
The communities once labelled them evil. Today, one is studying Sociology at university.
The other is working, pursuing higher education and hoping to build a future that tradition once denied him.
Their existence challenges the very beliefs that condemned them, because if the children once accused of bringing death have grown into responsible young adults, then perhaps the evil was never in the children.
Perhaps it was in the belief that innocent lives could be sacrificed in the name of tradition.
When Tradition Becomes A Death Sentence
For families in many parts of Nigeria, the death of a mother during childbirth is a moment of unimaginable grief.
But in some rural communities surrounding the Federal Capital Territory, that grief can quickly turn into another tragedy.
Instead of mourning one life, preparations begin to bury two.
The newborn, too young to understand the world or even recognise the face of its mother, is accused of causing her death.
Without evidence or medical explanation, the child is branded evil. The sentence is swift. The baby must die.
Investigations by Pinnacle Daily found that this belief remains one of the leading reasons children are rescued and brought to Vine Heritage Home.
According to records reviewed by us, more than 70 per cent of the children currently living at the home were rescued after their mothers died during childbirth or while nursing them. In the affected communities, the death of the mother is often interpreted as proof that the child is spiritually responsible and should be buried with her.
However, that is only one of several beliefs that continue to place children at risk.
The foundation documented other practices in which twins and multiple births are regarded as abominations, babies born with disabilities such as cerebral palsy and Down syndrome are seen as curses, albino children are rejected because of the colour of their skin, while even the unusual order in which a baby’s teeth emerge has, in some communities, been interpreted as a sign of evil. In rare cases, infants have also been targeted for ritual sacrifice linked to beliefs about securing a bountiful harvest.
Although many of these practices have declined after years of advocacy, campaigners say pockets of resistance remain.
“They are no longer as open as they used to be, but they have not disappeared,” Ajayi told Pinnacle Daily.
That assessment became evident during the investigation.
Unlike other forms of crime, infanticide linked to cultural beliefs rarely leaves behind evidence.
There are no police reports. Few hospital records. Almost no court cases.
The deaths occur quietly within families and are often presented as traditional burial rites rather than criminal acts.
The secrecy surrounding the practice has made it difficult to establish its true scale.
Campaigners believe many cases never come to public attention because they are resolved within communities before authorities become aware.
As a result, the children who survive are often the only evidence that the practice still exists.
The Real Killer
After spending nearly three decades rescuing children from affected communities, Ajayi believes many of the babies condemned by tradition are, in reality, victims of another crisis—Nigeria’s fragile maternal healthcare system.
Sitting inside his office at Vine Heritage Home, surrounded by photographs of children whose lives were saved, he argued that the conversation should begin not with superstition, but with the conditions under which many women give birth.
“The child did not kill the mother,” he said. “The mother died because there was no healthcare.”
He described communities where pregnant women rarely receive antenatal care, where expectant mothers continue farm work until labour begins and where deliveries are handled by traditional birth attendants with limited resources to manage emergencies.
In many of these villages, health centres are either too far away, poorly equipped or lack the personnel needed to respond to complications during childbirth.
Excessive bleeding, obstructed labour and other medical emergencies that could be treated in a properly equipped hospital often become fatal.
When the woman dies, families searching for answers return to beliefs that have been passed from one generation to another.
“The finger goes to the child,” Ajayi said.
To him, reducing maternal mortality is central to ending the practice.
He believes government investment in rural healthcare could save not only mothers but also babies who later become targets of harmful traditional beliefs.
Among the measures he proposed are better-equipped primary healthcare centres, improved access to skilled birth attendants, incentives to encourage pregnant women to attend antenatal clinics and stronger community education on the medical causes of maternal deaths.
“Until women stop dying from preventable complications,” he said, “some communities will continue blaming the baby instead of asking why the mother died.”
Government Knew
For years, stories of babies being buried alive in communities around Abuja were dismissed as rumours. Some described them as exaggerated accounts by missionaries.
Others insisted such practices had disappeared decades earlier. But by 2012, the reports had become too persistent to ignore.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) constituted a panel to investigate allegations that infants were being killed in rural communities because of harmful traditional beliefs.
The outcome was significant.
According to documents reviewed by Pinnacle Daily, the panel confirmed that the practice existed and validated concerns that babies were being condemned to death under customs that had survived for generations.
The findings prompted the FCT Administration to inaugurate a committee involving the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and other relevant agencies to educate affected communities on child rights and discourage harmful traditional practices.
For advocates who had spent years rescuing children, the government’s acknowledgment marked a turning point.
“It was no longer just our word,” said Ajayi.
“The government investigated and confirmed that it was happening.”
He also disclosed that the issue has continued to receive the attention of government officials.
He said Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, is aware of the situation and had directed the Mandate Secretary of the FCT Women Affairs Secretariat to visit Vine Heritage Home to assess the situation firsthand.
According to Ajayi, following the visit, the foundation prepared a detailed proposal outlining practical measures to tackle the practice and submitted it to the First Lady’s office in March 2025.
The proposal, a copy of which was made available to Pinnacle Daily, stressed that ending the practice requires more than rescuing children after they have been condemned. Instead, it calls for coordinated government intervention to address the underlying social, cultural and healthcare challenges that continue to fuel the killings.
Among its recommendations, the foundation urged government institutions to take greater responsibility for community education through sustained public awareness campaigns targeting traditional rulers, religious leaders, women and youth groups in affected communities.
The document also recommends strengthening maternal and child healthcare services in rural communities by expanding access to quality antenatal care, skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric services, arguing that reducing preventable maternal deaths would eliminate one of the main triggers for infanticide.
Ajayi said the foundation is hopeful that stronger government involvement would complement nearly three decades of advocacy by civil society organisations and accelerate efforts to eradicate the practice.
The recognition also attracted international attention.
In 2014, Amnesty International, working with Vine Heritage Home, launched advocacy campaigns across communities in Abaji and Kwali Area Councils, engaging traditional rulers, women, youth leaders and residents in conversations about child rights and the dangers of infanticide. The campaign later expanded through the European Union-supported Mobilising Action Towards the Abolition of Infanticide (MATAI) project, implemented with ActionAid Nigeria, targeting 58 communities.
The interventions produced encouraging results.
Communities that once refused to release children marked for death gradually began reporting cases instead.
Some parents returned years later to reconnect with children they had abandoned under pressure from tradition.
According to records reviewed by Pinnacle Daily, at least 12 rescued children have since been reunited with their biological families following sustained advocacy and changing attitudes within the affected communities.
Yet, despite those gains, the investigation found that the practice has not been completely eradicated.
Children are still being brought to the home.
Some arrive only days after birth.
Others are rescued after prolonged negotiations with family members unwilling to abandon customs they inherited from previous generations.
Another rescued infant was recently admitted into the home after the child’s mother died during childbirth.
For Ajayi, the baby’s arrival underscored an uncomfortable reality. “We have made progress, but progress is not the same as victory,” he said.
The Cost Of Silence
One of the greatest challenges uncovered during the investigation is the absence of official data.
Because the killings often occur within families and are carried out under the cover of traditional burial rites, many cases never reach law enforcement agencies or child protection authorities.
There are few police records. Few prosecutions. Few convictions.
As a result, the true number of children who have died under these customs remains unknown.
For every child rescued and brought to Vine Heritage Home, campaigners fear there may be others whose stories end before anyone outside the community becomes aware.
That silence, child rights advocates argue, is what allows the practice to survive.
As long as communities continue to treat these deaths as tradition rather than crime, justice remains out of reach for the children who never lived long enough to tell their own stories.
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As the afternoon sun faded over Vine Heritage Home, the children who had spent the day at their various classrooms came back home.
The younger ones chased each other across the compound, laughing without a care in the world. To a first-time visitor, they looked no different from children anywhere else.
But every smile carried a story. Some had been rescued from graves dug before they could utter their first cry.
Others had escaped poisoning, abandonment, or ritual sacrifice. Many would never know the women who gave birth to them.
Yet they had survived. Not because tradition changed overnight. But because someone arrived before it was too late.
Among them are university students, apprentices and young adults preparing to build lives that once seemed impossible.
The children once dismissed as “evil” have become living proof that the beliefs used to condemn them were never rooted in evidence.
For Stevens Olusola Ajayi, who has spent nearly three decades rescuing children from communities where harmful traditional practices persist, every child who survives represents both a victory and a painful reminder that the work is unfinished.
He hopes the day will come when Vine Heritage Home will no longer receive frantic calls about babies whose lives hang in the balance because their mothers died during childbirth.
His greatest wish, he said, is not to expand the orphanage. It is to make it unnecessary. That, however, will require more than rescue missions.
It will require stronger maternal healthcare in rural communities, sustained public enlightenment, active enforcement of child protection laws and continued engagement with traditional and religious leaders to challenge beliefs that place innocent lives at risk.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration’s investigation, advocacy campaigns by civil society organisations and years of community engagement have helped reduce the practice in several communities. But the arrival of new children at the home suggests that the problem has not been eradicated.
For child rights advocates, that reality raises urgent questions.
How many children were never rescued?
How many were buried before anyone knew they had been born?
How many mothers died from preventable complications, only for their babies to be blamed instead of the failures that claimed their lives?
Those questions remain unanswered.
What is certain, however, is that behind the walls of Vine Heritage Home are children who were once denied the right to live simply because of the circumstances surrounding their birth.
Their stories challenge long-held assumptions that infanticide linked to harmful traditional beliefs belongs only to Nigeria’s past.
They also expose a deeper truth.
The greatest danger these children faced was never the day they were born.
It was the beliefs that greeted their arrival.
More than a century after Mary Slessor challenged the killing of twins, another generation of children has had to depend on strangers to defend their right to life.
The difference is that this battle is being fought not in the pages of history, but in communities that lie within sight of Nigeria’s capital.
Until no family believes that a newborn should be buried with its mother…
Until no child is branded a curse because of a disability, albinism, or the circumstances of birth,
Until every pregnant woman has access to safe, quality maternal healthcare…
The next tiny grave may already be waiting for another child whose only crime was surviving.
Esther Ososanya is an investigative journalist with Pinnacle Daily, reporting across health, business, environment, metro, Fct and crime. Known for her bold, empathetic storytelling, she uncovers hidden truths, challenges broken systems, and gives voice to overlooked Nigerians. Her work drives national conversations and demands accountability one powerful story at a time.