Dennis Akagha, the fiance of late nurse Justina
Ejelonu who died from the deadly Ebola virus, says
he's currently being stigmatized for being associated
with the deadly Ebola disease. In an interview with
Punch, he said he's faced stigma from people on his
street, artisans and most recently his work place.
Dennis who was working as a marketing officer in an
oil company before his fiancee contracted the
disease, says he no longer works there. He said after
he left the isolation center, his office refused to pick
his calls or communicate with him. Excepts from the
interview after the cut..
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You’ve been certified to be Ebola Virus negative,
for how long has that been?

It’s going to two weeks now. Saturday (today) will
make it two weeks exactly that I’ve been certified
negative. I’ve not had any of the symptoms since
then. But I’m granting this interview basically for one
reason; before I was quarantined, I saw it in the Bible
that I would not die but live to testify the goodness of
God upon my life. When God saved me, it is my
responsibility to tell the whole world and Nigerians
that God is still in the business of doing miracles. So
I’m a living testimony of the goodness of God.

You said before you were quarantined, that
means at that point, you knew you had Ebola
Virus?

Yes. But it was not that I was tested positive to it but I had started seeing the symptoms; I had started
feeling feverish and having pains all over my body,
my muscles, my waist. I was described as being
symptomatic at the time. The symptoms came up for
like three days. My temperature rose.
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So what do you really think saved you? Did the
doctors give you any drugs?
I will always tell the whole world that it’s a miracle
because I met people who were at the isolation
centre before me and I left the place before them. I
stayed there for five days. It was a miracle. What
worked for me was my faith and my belief because
right from the day I saw the symptoms, I had been
talking to myself. I found it in the Bible that the power
of life and death is in my tongue which means
anything I speak happens for me. At that point in
time, I started speaking to my body, my blood system
and doing the things you will ordinarily not
understand. These are the things we call mysteries.

Would you like to share some of these mysteries?

I can share them but some people may not believe
them. In the church where I worship, we believe in
holy communion and feet washing. The Bible says
that the life of the body is in the blood and I also
found where Jesus was telling his disciples, if you eat
my flesh and drink my blood, you will have life
abundantly and not die. With this understanding, I
started taking the blood of Jesus and eating the
flesh
three times in a day. I started doing feet washing.
These are the mysteries and they are the things that
helped deliver me from the bondage of sickness. I got the bread from my church and I was blessing my
water to do feet washing.

You were there for five days, what was your
experience like within that period?

I was taken in on Tuesday, August 19, 2014 and left
there on Saturday night, August 23, 2014. The
experience wasn’t funny, anyway. I really want to
appreciate Lagos State. The state has done the best
out of all the places where Ebola has been ravaging
lives. Initially, there were no volunteers and the
facilities were not there but it was because the virus
came unexpectedly. Nobody expected it. But within a
short time, the facilities improved, so the state tried.
The first day I got there, I was just telling myself that I was not Ebola positive. When I got there, they took
my blood samples and the results came out the
following day. Then, I was kept in a ward meant for
suspects. We had two wards: one is a ward for
persons suspected to have the virus and the other
was for persons confirmed to already have it. So
once you are confirmed to have it, they will take you
away from the ‘suspects’ ward’ to the other ward.
When I was confirmed to have it, they took me to the
‘confirmed’ ward. I went in with them and I met
others there. Immediately I lay down on my bed, I
cried but nobody knew I was shedding tears. I just lay
there and cried. I was crying to God because I
already told him that I would not die but live. It took
me five minutes to shed the tears and afterwards, I
wiped my tears. One of the doctors came in to tell me
that my results were not clear to them. She said the
results were bulky; that was the language she used
and that they could not understand it. In other words,
I wasn’t meant to be there. So they took me back to
the ‘suspects’ ward and said they would rerun the
tests. That was on Wednesday. They reran the tests
and the results came out on Thursday afternoon. It
was positive. So they asked me to go back to the
confirmed’ ward. I told them I was not sick. They said
that I was positive but I insisted that I didn’t have
Ebola. We quarrelled for sometime so it took me time
to go back to the ‘confirmed’ ward. It was after much
pleading and also because they said I was a risk to
others in the ‘suspects’ ward. So I went back to the
confirmed’ ward but I was still saying I was not sick. I was still taking my holy communion and doing feet
washing and praying. I slept thereon Thursday night
and then they came again to take my blood samples.
I was there on Friday too. I was doing my regular
exercise- press up and everything. Then on Saturday
night, they called me that I had been discharged. I had even forgotten that my blood samples were
taken for a test. They said my results came out
negative. In that case, I didn’t have any business
there anymore.

How did you feel when you were told you could
leave the centre?

The first thing I did was to go back to my closet, knelt
down and thanked God. I felt happy because I knew it
was not just an ordinary miracle. When I was there, I posted on my Facebook wall that my case would defy
all medical terminologies and theories. And a lot of
people wrote ‘Amen’ to it. But some of them may not
understand but I had this belief in myself and in the
God that I serve. A lot of people were also strongly
supporting me with their prayers. I will encourage
people having health challenges or suffering from
terminal illnesses not to keep silent, they should tell
others. I had friends and relatives praying and fasting
on my behalf. On Facebook, my Whatsapp group,
they were praying for me and sending me messages
and Bible portions on what to read and declare.
Those things helped me to boost my faith.

How have your friends, relatives and neighbours
been relating with you since you returned from
the isolation centre?

The stigma will always be there and it will take some
time for it to phase out. It happened when HIV and
Lassa fever came out. So this is not the first and it
won’t be the last. But I know that with time, it will
phase out. I faced a lot of stigmatisation on my
street.

Can you recall specific instances?

Yes. When I was symptomatic, because I had bushy
hair, I went to a salon to have a haircut. Somebody
who knew what happened to my fiancée ran away
from the salon. Also, I went somewhere to buy
toothpaste and the mallam (Hausa man) refused to
sell to me. He said he was not selling. I said but you
have toothpaste, he said yes, but that he was not
selling. And where I worked as a marketing officer, it
happened. I got a job this same month Justina got a
job at the hospital (where Patrick Sawyer visited).
Mine was an oil and gas company. Indirectly, I
experienced it there. I no longer work there.

Were you told to stop coming?

They did it indirectly. It will be shameful for me to go
back there. After I left the isolation centre, I said no, I won’t go back there. God has a reason for everything.
A lot of people have told me to protest but I said no.
For God to bring me out of this, He has very big plans
for my life. The communication was no longer there;
I was calling (the office) and they stopped picking my
calls. So I didn’t bother to go to the office. It got to an
extent that even after I came out, my mum travelled
to the east (my hometown) for an August meeting
and as soon as she got to the venue, everyone ran
away. They were like, since your son had Ebola, then
you will definitely have Ebola. That was the extent of
the stigmatisation.

What was the quarantine centre where Justina
was kept like when you got there?

As I said, Lagos State government didn’t expect it. So
the environment wasn’t that conducive. The place she
was, was a different facility from where I was. It was
the same hospital environment but not the same
facility. Justina and others were put there while
government was preparing a better place for them.
She was already there before some others were
moved to the other facility. There was no water or
oxygen where she was, and the environment wasn’t
okay. Lagos State government tried and did its best to
make sure that they improve the facilities later and I can testify to that.

Were you disappointed that there was no water
or oxygen?

It still boils down to the fact that it was not expected.
There was no oxygen available when she needed
oxygen but one thing about her was that she lived a
good life and was very friendly. She was loved by
people and had good friends, so when she needed
oxygen, her group of friends rallied round and came
up with oxygen that day. In fact, they said they would
provide more if she needed more. The situation took
government unawares but those things are there
now. I was there and I can testify to it. The facilities
are superb and the environment is nice. There are a
lot of volunteers now.

When you saw that the place was untidy, did you
approach the health workers and what did they
say?

Nigeria as a whole, we didn’t t expect this. It was not
expected. So it took time for people to start
volunteering to come and work. So those people who
were there were scared so I didn’t blame them.
Nobody wanted to take the risk of being infected. It
was not until after a lot of awareness had been done
that people understood more and started coming to
volunteer to work there.


Do you think that the government could have
saved her life if the facilities were better?

Well, I really don’t know. God knows best. I was
discussing with someone recently and I said she
shouldn’t have died. The person asked why and I said
I saw a portion in the Bible where God said He would
satisfy us with long life. She had not even lived up to
50 when she passed on. The person told me that a
new born child that dies within a week has lived a
long life. I wondered how and he said the day we die
is the day our lives end which means we have lived a
long life and have fulfilled our purpose. I’m still
pondering over that but I came to a conclusion that
God wasn’t sleeping so He must know about
everything that happened. As much as people were
praying for me when I was there, people were
praying for her also.

So what are your plans now that you’re fine, but
out of job?

I intend to look for another job. If it’s the will of God
for me to work, I will get another job. Aside from
that, I made Justina a promise. I spoke with her the
night she passed on but I had to go there to confirm
the next morning. I had to go inside there after
wearing the kits. I was led in and I held her hands, I
just wanted to know if she was truly dead. At that
time, she was already dead. I told her that I would
make sure I pursued those things she could not
achieve that I knew about, in my own little way and
with the help of individuals. I would make sure she
fulfils the dreams. Before her death, she had a vision
of a project that I don’t want to share here. If that is
what will keep me busy for the rest of my life, I don’t
mind to keep her memory alive. I wrote the plan and
we were just waiting to complete our marriage plans
before proceeding with the project. After her death, I had to go back to my system (laptop) to fetch out
those things and start reworking them. I’m done with
writing the plan and the next step is to register the
business. Private individuals who may want to
support the cause since she died while trying to save
lives, are welcome. I don’t mind since it will be in
memory of Justina Obioma Ejelonu. Yes, a lot of
people have been asking me, after now, what next?
You have lost a loved one, you’ve lost your job and
you’ve come out negative, what next and I tell them
that it boils down to God.

You said you held her hand after she had died.
But can you recall the last time you saw her alive
and what she said to you?

The last day I saw her alive was three weeks today
because she died on a Thursday morning. She
requested to see me and I went inside to see her,
cleaned her and made sure her surroundings were
clean and okay. She was on drips and I spoke with
her. She requested for tea, hot or cold. There was no
way I could get hot water around so I went to get
beverage and two bottles of table water to prepare
the tea (beverage) for her. I also bought bread for
her. That was the last thing I bought for her. I
remember she said she loved me; that was the last
thing she told me. After cleaning her up, she called
on one of the doctors, a WHO doctor, Dr. David. She
said softly to the doctor, did I not tell you? The doctor
asked what. She said did I not tell you that if my
husband comes here, a miracle would happen. I
laughed and the doctor said yes. I had to clean her
up that day.

You took some risks taking Justina to the
hospital and cleaning her up, didn’t you know the
risks involved?

You see, if you love someone, you will do those
things, except you don’t genuinely love the person. If
you genuinely love someone, you can do anything for
the person. I genuinely loved her; she was supposed
to be my wife. And at that point in time, I saw no
reason why I should abandon her. I know most men
would do that but my conscience would judge me for
the rest of my life if I had run away. So I had to stand
by her. I took the risks because I loved her and at a
point, I started being careful at the same time. The
Bible says wisdom is profitable to direct. But I had
been 100 per cent exposed already even before I started taking precautions. I started using polythene
bags as gloves, which was not even safe. Not that I didn’t think of the risks, but love is a very powerful
thing. I know she would have done the same thing for
me. So why would I want to run away?

How did you receive news of her death?

Normally, I call her every morning but that morning ,
I called and called and she didn’t pick up. So I went to
the hospital and I was supposed to get some things
for her anyway. So I got the news when I got there. It
was painful for me. Have you lost a loved one before?
At that moment, I felt like going with her. I felt that I
couldn’t stay behind (on earth). I felt like dying so that
it would be like we both died, although it was not
possible (for me to kill myself). But that was how I felt.

Did you receive government visits at home?

I didn’t encourage visitors; I didn’t want anyone to
visit me. The only people that were visiting me were
Lagos State government officials but they were not
coming to my house. They would get to my street and
call me to come out. They were only coming to
monitor my temperature. I was given a digital
thermometer to check my temperature and I would
tell them the readings. I checked it every morning
and I would meet them outside and tell them. They
were the only people coming everyday until when
they came to pick me; every other person had
indirectly run away. They took me away when my
temperature showed that it had risen.
Did they show up immediately Justina was
confirmed to have had Ebola?
Normally, they were suppose to come and fumigate
my house on that day but they didn’t come; they
came two weeks after. I had already done it myself. I bought three bottles of JIK and mixed it water. I did
the disinfection and cleaned my house by myself
before they came.

Why did it take them two weeks to show up?

Well, I don’t know. I think maybe it was due to
logistics. It’s none of my business.
Culled from Punch

Hmmmm

TOO BAD. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO TAKE EBOLA AS A DISEASE N NOT A DEATH SENTENCE. SORRY I FOR EMPLOY U BUT I NO GET ANY COMPANY.

...Wonderful testimony

Sigh!!!!I feel ur pain...but u don't expect ppl 2 mingle with u as former bro na EBOLA we call am...Government should do something!!!

spanzed: Sigh!!!!I feel ur pain...but u don't expect ppl 2 mingle with u as former bro na EBOLA we call am...Government should do something!!!

spanzed: Sigh!!!!I feel ur pain...but u don't expect ppl 2 mingle with u as former bro na EBOLA we call am...Government should do something!!!

Yes o na Ebola we dey talk about now

This is where awareness comes to play. Sad something!

Abo.ki Abo.ki., that Abo.ki part really got my ribs cracking.
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Thanks be to God sha.