By Prince Albert Uba

For Precious Ando, fate couldn’t have been crueller. At age 11, the Obudu, Cross River State born promising young girl was already nursing the ambition of becoming one of Nigeria’s celebrated accountants.

But this was truncated halfway by a devil incarnate hit and run Okada rider who swept her off her feet and sped off as fast as he could, leaving poor little Precious who was trekking back from school on the ground; writhing in pains.

Sympathizers later came to her rescue, rushed her to a nearby medical center for a first aid treatment but refused to go further because of the intensity of the fracture.

She was then referred to a local bone setting home in Odoguyan in Ikorodu, an outskirt of Lagos state.

Weeks on, the leg had gone bad because of the inexperience of the attendants and she was again, referred to Urgent Hospital Victoria Island Lagos; a centre used by staff of CFAO Motors where her father worked as a driver to one of the expatriates.

But an already traumatized Precious was to receive the shock of her life when management of the hospital informed her that CFAO Motors had asked that her treatment be stopped because the scheme did not cover her father’s family who was at the time working as a ‘contract staff’ in the company.

However, succour came her way when a Good Samaritan in the person of Dr Chukwuyenum Olusegun Asanife, a Trauma and Orthopedic Surgeon consultant to the hospital. From the moment Dr, Chuks set his eyes on Precious, he took it upon himself to see that the already distraught little girl smiles and walks on her two legs like every normal person again.

But first, she would have to be informed of the decision to amputate her and replace with artificial leg and if she willingly consented, then he would go ahead with the plans. Having given her nod, the shattered foot was amputated and replaced with an artificial one; all expenses borne by Dr Chuks alone.

“Dr. Chuks is my father and my all in all. Though he is not my biological dad he is God sent. But for him and his family especially, his daughter who lives outside the country, I would not have been able to walk freely on my legs like every normal human being again”, she said.

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Giving vivid account of the accident which has earned her an artificial leg, a tearful Precious who is now 19 years old said, “I attended Rock of Ages School Odogunyan in Ikorodu, it was sometime in 2013 when I was coming back from school that a bike hit me and ran away.

“My mum took me to a bonesetter but I don’t think they knew what they were supposed to do so my leg got spoilt and the wound was smelling and bringing out bad blood.

“So I was transferred to a place called Urgent Hospital in Victoria Island that was where I met Dr Chuks who later transformed my life today. Initially, when I heard that my leg was to be amputated, I was nervous but when he promised me another one, I was happy.

“Apart from getting me another leg, he got me admission into Our Lady of Apostolic School, Ijebu Ode and later Abeokuta Grammar School where I graduated. Daddy Chuks has been our all in all, he gives us money, even the small house that my mum is building, it is Daddy who gave us most of the materials including burglary proof that we used.

“Even now that my mummy was hit by a hit and run vehicle, and one man called Adebayo who came to support my mum was shot, it is still daddy who is taking care of them. He gives me money for Adebayo who is now at Federal Medical Center, Abeokuta and my mum too who is at a traditional bone setting home.

“The CSO of the company whose driver hit my mother and the soldier who shot Mr Adebayo only visited once and promised to be back to take care of the bills but up till today, he hasn’t shown up.

“I am most grateful to Dr Chuks for everything. When I was growing up I had said I would be an accountant and a banker but now if I can get admission into the university, I would want to read medicine and specialize as a Trauma/orthopaedic surgeon like daddy too, so that I can tell my story well.

“As for the Okada man who hit me and ran away, I have forgiven him because as a Catholic that I am we are taught to forgive those who trespass against us. I do not think he knew what he did.”

It was revealed that the interest Dr. Chuks had for Precious Adon tripled upon the discovery that she was full of life and wants to live a good life if given the opportunity. He, therefore, got her enrolled in school to continue her studies.

But it was not yet uhuru for Precious as her anxious schoolmates soon dragged her to a corner of the school premises to have a forceful full view of the artificial leg and in the process got it damaged.

Again, Dr. Chuks had to repair the damaged leg, changed her from that school to another one; this time, a boarding house where she has happily graduated in flying colours.

In the meantime, while awaiting her JAMB result, another tragedy struck; this time, it was her struggling mother. Having resigned to fate with the burden of fending for the family after her husband had lost his job with CFAO Motors and abandoned her.

Mrs. Rose Ogbange resorted to farming, buying and selling farm produce from Ogijo in Ogun State and selling them at Mile 12 market.

It was one of such trips precisely on October 7, 2021, that a fast moving Hilux van with registration number GBE 31ZC rammed into the Okada she was traveling by to the farm and had her leg shattered.

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Like what happened to her daughter 8 years ago, Mrs Rose was swept off the ground by the hit and run driver and abandoned to her fate.

However, unlike her daughter’s plight, onlookers and sympathizers didn’t spare the driver of the Hillux van which had a Chinese as occupant as youths in the area including one Adebayo Adegoke, a commercial bus driver repairing his vehicle across the road, joined in the pursuit and gave the fleeing driver a hot chase.

He was pursued to a Company which turned out to be a Chinese company called African Foundries Ltd.

But rather than come down to address the situation, the Chinese reportedly screamed “kidnappers, kidnappers” having assured himself of safety in the company’s premises and ordered the soldiers guarding the compound to open fire at the hapless youth
in their numbers, only knocking the company’s big gate for attention.

One of the protesters, named Adebayo Adegoke, a 36-year-old widower and father of 4, had his kneecap and thigh shattered by the soldier’s bullets. Again, he too was left on the ground in the pool of his blood.

But undeterred by the brutal action of the soldiers,  the youths had mobilized and headed to the company and spoiling for war only for some Nigerian staff of the company to come out to plead with the angry youths assuring them that the company would bear the cost of treatment of both Mrs Rose and Mr Adebayo.

He was, therefore, evacuated from the group and taken to a nearby hospital. But sensing the degree of damage done to the leg and thigh, the hospital rejected him and he was taken to Abeokuta where he is now. Sad enough, both Mrs Rose and Adebayo, the man who came out to protest against the injustice meted out to her by a foreigner are presently abandoned in their irrespective hospital beds by the same messenger of death.

Again, Doctor Chuks was contacted and he has taken up the bills of both victims including their families.

Recounting how he got into the picture of this whole unholy drama, starting from Miss Precious, her mother and of course Adebayo Adegoke, Dr Chukwuyenum Olusegun Osanife, the Kwale, Delta State born medical doctor and consultant who specialized in Trauma/Orthopedic Surgery said, “It will shock you that I do not know where Precious comes from until I came back from Germany where I went to get her artificial leg and I asked her to tell me who she is; that was when she said she is from Cross River State.

“The truth is that I took pity on her, seeing her condition. By the time she was brought to the hospital where I consult, the leg was already bad and was smelling; so I thought within myself that she had to be amputated but first, I must get her consent.

“So I met with her and told her that I would have to amputate her leg and get her another one and she looked straight into my eyes with hope and asked, you’ll get me another leg? I said yes and she said then cut it.

“That was how the leg was amputated and the following week I travelled out having taken her measurement and got her another leg so much so that if you do not look very well, you would not know it is artificial”.

Narrating further, Dr Chuks said, “When I discovered that she had become lively again and could walk around perfectly with the leg, I said to myself that this girl has to go back to school; but before now the headteacher of her former school in Ikorodu when she visited her in the hospital had said passingly, that with this present condition, this girl cannot continue with her education but unknown to her that I had good plans for her.

That was how I got her to school in Abeokuta all expense paid because her father had abandoned them, took to alcoholism shortly after losing his job with CFAO and the only breadwinner was the mother selling tomatoes and vegetable at Mile 12 market.

“I later had to transfer her from the school where her mates had her leg damaged to a boarding school in Abeukota where she graduated recently in flying colours.

She was learning catering and make-up when we heard the sad news of her mother being hit in like manner and again, I had to come in fully too because both mother and child had taken me as their saviour.

Moreover, the manner of the accident showed gross injustice by foreigners in our own land.

To worsen the situation, a man who was among the sympathizers seeking  justice for the wounded woman was shot by our own soldiers working for these heartless foreigners. I am taking this personal.

“I have petitioned the AIG Zone 2 through my lawyers and I am sure at the end of the day, both Precious’ mother and Adebayo Adegoke, a widower with 4 children, who left his vehicle which was being serviced to protest against barefaced injustice in our land, will get justice”.

Vanguard News Nigeria