The artisan who had over N70m raised for his baby with days to live, has disclosed that the police did beat him up when he sat with his sick baby at Rivers Government House gate. 

According to the father, he met local government chairmen, councillors and House of Assembly members,  and some of them even warned him not to send them video clips of his sick baby again. The artisan further disclosed that he sat with his sick baby at Rivers Government House gate, after he expended the money given to him to buy drugs for the baby. 

Here are excerpts from his interview with Punch;

What was the doctor’s advice?

The doctor advised that the child be admitted and that doctors were coming from Italy to Nigeria and that they could treat the boy free of charge. But when we went to Enugu State to see the Italian doctors, they told us that they could not treat such a case and advised that we take the child abroad. A children’s heart specialist at the hospital in Enugu gave us an e-mail address of a doctor abroad for the treatment. She said we need to take the child abroad and gave us an estimate of N15m. The N15m includes logistics and travel fares. A doctor advised that the condition of the baby requires oxygen to carry the child to wherever we are going when we are travelling to.

What happened the day you went to Government House?

I took my child to the place naked so that people could see him. I earlier placed a banner on the monorail pillars since last year, but the response I got was low. If the response was good enough, I would not have taken him out. Everyone I met told me that it was only the government that could help me, and that individuals cannot do it. That was why I took him there.

When I got there, the security men (there) initially sympathised with me, but they said there was an order that I should leave the premises. I told them about my situation and asked why they were telling me to leave. They dragged the child away from me, dropped him on the ground and carried me away from the gate and threw me far off the gate, near the roundabout, close to the water fountain. The video is on the Internet. I sat there for close to two hours and when the security men saw that people were coming there to ask me questions about my baby’s situation and were snapping and videoing me (and I think then the governor wanted to go out for a campaign); the security operatives came where I was and dragged me into a Hilux pick-up truck, about 10 of them, beat me up, dragged my child and nearly broke his arm. They carried me inside the vehicle and continued beating me. I still feel the pains. When they realised that people were still watching and taking pictures, they released me and left me there until someone came and gave me a stipend to take the child to the hospital. The hospital even advised that the child be admitted, but we told them that we didn’t have enough money to pay.

Have you got any response?

We have not got any response from the Rivers State Government, but other persons have been calling me all over the world – from South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Asia, Canada and Europe. They are trying to verify whether I’m real. People are video-calling me and when I am with my baby, I show them so that they can confirm that it is a real person they are talking to. Someone also opened a GoFundMe account for me to raise money for my baby’s treatment.

https://unclesuru.com/2019/02/03/police-beat-me-up-when-i-sat-with-my-sick-baby-at-rivers-government-house-artisan/

lalasticlala, seun, mynd44