The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Blind man

  • Blind man arraigned for aiding robber’s escape

    A blind man, Monday Eroanya, was on Thursday arraigned before an Ikeja High Court for allegedly aiding a robbery suspect escape arrest.

    Eroanya faces a two-count charge of accessories after the fact to a felony and forgery before Justice Josephine Oyefeso

    Eroanya who was led into the dock owing to his bad sight, however denied the charges.

    According to the prosecutor Ms Abike Oluwasanmi, Eroanya committed the offences on February 19, 2016 at Isheri, Lagos.

    Read Also: Driver docked for allegedly bolting with employer’s N170, 000

    “The defendant aided Michael Eguogwu by providing a fictitious Way Bill used in transporting a robbed truck with registration number EPE72XJ loaded with new tyres.

    “He had also forged the Way Bill for the truck which was transporting the new tyres from Lagos to Onitsha, Anambra State,” Oluwasanmi said.

    According to the prosecution, the offences contravene Sections 365(3)(j) and 415 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

    Justice Josephine Oyefeso adjourned the case until July 11 for trial.

  • Succour for a blind man

    •Governor Ambode’s humanitarian gesture for the columnist should be an example

    Apart from being a commendable demonstration of personal compassion, the intervention of the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, in the sad situation of Mr. Wole Falodun is a striking expression of his understanding of institutional integrity. It is impressive that the Lagos State Government responded to the news of Falodun’s plight within 24 hours.

    After PUNCH Metro on July 22, 2015, reported Falodun’s troubles following a problematic eye surgery at the Lagos Island General Hospital, Ambode promptly directed that he should be invited for a discussion. Falodun, a former correspondent of Radio Nigeria and an ex-columnist who in the 1970s wrote the popular column Waka About in the defunct Lagos Weekend, reportedly went blind as a result of a surgeon’s error during a glaucoma operation in 1995.

    According to the story, Falodun had sought the help of the then Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and had a meeting with Tinubu in February 2002 following a letter he wrote to him in May 2001. Tinubu had reportedly promised that the state would take care of Falodun on humanitarian grounds, specifically through financial support and by ensuring the education of his three children through the “state scholarship board and other convenient options”. These promises are yet to be fulfilled 13 years after, the report said.

    It is a measure of the sensitivity of the Ambode administration that its immediate response came through a statement by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Tunji Bello, which said: “According to the Governor, the Secretary to the State Government is to establish contact with Mr. Wole Falodun and collect details of promises made by his predecessors in office and ensure that they are forwarded to him for immediate action. The governor said the promises were not personal, but made on behalf of the state government.”

    Significantly, the SSG’s statement also said: “This singular move is a demonstration of the commitment of this administration to the plight of its citizenry and it will ensure that promises made to Lagosians are fulfilled.”

    It must be appreciated that Ambode’s logic of sensible continuity is a remarkable departure from the familiar path of unreasonable discontinuity commonly adopted by political helmsmen in the country. It takes a humble appreciation of the reality of predecessors and successors in government for a governor to decide to give effect to promises made by a previous holder of the position. In particular, the beauty of Ambode’s intervention is that it is not driven by any implication of the liability of the state government arising from the alleged negligence of the doctor who performed the surgery that went awry.

    While Falodun’s present circumstances are unlikely to be the same as they were when the government at the time promised to help lighten his burden, it is expected that the Ambode administration will nevertheless address his current state of affairs with a sense of seriousness. It is unfortunate that Falodun’s eye problem was ironically and terribly worsened in the course of medical treatment. However, it is hoped that, with the assistance of the state government, he would be able to cope better with his physical disability.

    Certainly, there is a lesson for medical workers in Falodun’s pathetic tale. In the delicate business of surgery and in the delivery of medical remedies generally, health personnel cannot care too much or be too careful. The consequences of human mistakes in the context of health care can be agonising as Falodun’s case has shown.

    It has been a long wait for Falodun, and now that a listening administration is willing to act and give much-needed succour, there should be no further delay.

  • Blind man, 42, needs N300,000 for hernia surgery

    Blind man, 42, needs N300,000 for hernia surgery

    orty-two-year-old Ebenezer Ojo, who hails from Ilesa, Osun State, cannot do what men of his age are doing because he is blind.

    He is also suffering from hernia and watery sperm. He doesn’t have relations to cater for him. He needs money to feed, wade through life and, more importantly, pay for the surgery he is billed for.

    At his age, most men are married with children; he is still single, living alone with no help from any family member or friends.

    Lamenting his poor state, Ojo said some of his friends sometimes bother him for money.

    He said he has been sustaining himself through begging for alms. This, he said, is demeaning.

    “I hate to beg people for money but what do I do if I can’t get money to feed,” he added.

    Ojo said: “Despite being visually impaired, do you know people still rely on me? But now, I also need help to pay for my treatment at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

    “I really don’t like to lean on people, which is why I need the help of Nigerians so that I can start doing something, especially selling ice block, to take care of myself. Now I need to be taking some drugs but I’ve not been able to buy them. It is painful that despite having the prescription of drugs I wasn’t privileged to buy them. The medicines and surgery cost N200,000.”

    Ojo said the doctor recommended he needs hernia surgery and another surgery to separate water from his semen.

    “The doctor said my semen was diluting with water,” he added. Ojo said he can be reached through Rimax Institute. He opened a bank account: Ebenezer Ojo: First Bank: 3014420198.

    He is calling on kind-hearted Nigerians and corporate organization to help him financially so that he can have the surgery as quickly as possible

  • Blind man runs baby factory in Anambra

    A 54-year-old blind man, his daughters and others have been arrested in Anambra state for “running a baby factory.”

    Operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) arrested Geoffrey Okoli who hails from Aguata local government area but failed to apprehend  another suspect one Catherine Eze, alleged to be the brain behind the sale of the babies. They said other accomplices are in the SSS custody.

    Anambra State Director of the security service, Mr. Alex Okeiyi, told reporters yesterday in Awka that the suspects had been transferred to the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic of Persons (NAPTIP) in Enugu for further investigation.

    The suspects allegedly realised N900,000 from the sale of two babies – a boy and a girl – at N530, 000 and N370,000.

    The teenage girls, ages 17 and 19, daughters of Mr. Okoli, said they did not  benefit from sale of the babies as they were not given any money.

    Okeiyi spoke on the case of a teenage pregnant lady “Apprehended in Okoli’s house whose real name is believed to be Anisiobi (19).

    “Her Unborn baby was slated to be sold on delivery, unfortunately, the girl started bleeding on July 10 and had to be delivered of a baby girl through Caesarian Section (CS) the same day at the Anambra State University Teaching Hospital Amaku in Awka, but the baby later died”

    The main suspect, he said, graduated in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1994 and works as a welfare officer in one of the local government areas in the state.

    Narrating his ordeal yesterday at the state headquarters of the SSS, Okoli confessed that he sold the two babies adding that he joined the business last year.

    He said: “I sold the boy to one woman at Ekwulobia in Aguata local government area for N530,000.00 last month and the girl that gave birth to him has gone back to her place in Akwukwu in Idemili south council Area”

    ”I sold the girl whose mother is from Ojoto in Idemili South Council for N370, 000 to a woman, Agulu Ezechukwu, also last month.

    ”I know that what I have been doing is wrong but, I did it to help those girls who had no place to live when they were driven out of their homes

    ”I am a social welfare officer by vocation, last year; a lady came to me (Mrs. Kate Eze) in my office and told me that she and the husband have AS blood group, that their children were dying after birth, which made them childless and therefore needed to adopt a baby.

    “I advised them to process the needed adoption papers through the ministry of women affairs which they agreed and left and I never knew, it would turn to this level” Okoli said

    The suspect’s two teenage daughters arrested alongside their father, (names withheld) told our correspondent that they thought their father was helping people in need without knowing that it was purely for business.