A day-old-baby boy was yesterday morning found dead in a gutter close to the Nyanya overhead bridge in Abuja.

The corpse was naked and laid on its side with the eyes closed.

Women who were among the crowd that formed to look at the corpse examined its navel and shouted that the baby was delivered in a hospital.

A City News reporter observed people raining curses on the woman that abandoned the corpse in the gutter.

"The mother of this child would search for another child and would not get," a woman was seen swearing.

Another man said the mother might have been a prostitute. "Only prostitutes can do this type of thing so that their business can continue," he said.

Okada riders around who were the first to sight the corpse told the reporter that when they resumed work at 6. 40am, they noticed the corpse and raised an alarm. One of them, Augustine, said he entered into the gutter to rescue the child and had to abandon the idea when he saw the baby was dead.

A petty seller around the area put the time of the dumping of the corpse to between midnight and 5am.

"This area is a very busy place and there is no way a person would dump such a thing without being seen," she said.

The corpse was picked from the gutter by a plain clothed policewoman and an okada rider who both entered the gutter at 9am to wrap the body with a cloth. The remains were placed inside a black polythene bag and the policewoman mounted a motorcycle that took her back to the station.

A policeman at the scene said the police might begin their investigations from various hospitals situated around Nyanya to get the mother of the dead baby.

"Once the mother is identified, the police would certainly prosecute her to serve as a deterrent to other ladies," the officer said.