Maduako Igbokwe I Friday, March 08, 2024
AWKA, Nigeria – As the world celebrates 2024 International Women’s Day today, about 120 Persons living with Sickle Cell Disorder in Anambra State have decried ill maltreatment and wickedness meted to them by their mothers.
They have also accused Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Ify Obinabo of neglect and frustrating efforts of the governor’s wife Dr. Nonye Soludo to assist them.
Speaking to reporters in Awka, Anambra State capital, the National Coordinator of Association Of People Living With Sickle Cell Disorder APLSCD Mrs Aisha Edward Maduagwu said she has a girl in her home, Miss Chilotam Ezikwere and that nobody has asked about her in the last four years.
“I have a girl in my Sickle Cell Home in Agulu Anaocha local government area of Anambra State, Miss Chilotam Ezikwere who has been with me for four years and nobody has ever come to ask about her. I got in contact with the driver that brought her and from there I got contact of the former Commissioner for Women Affairs Mrs Ezikere who confirmed that the girl is her relative “
“She also told me that the current Commissioner for woman Affairs Mrs Ify Obinabo is married to the girl’s family and I contacted her but she did nothing”
“Then, as a body we paid a courtesy visit to Obinabo and she promised a lot of things to help us through the first lady Dr Mrs Nonye Soludo but a year after nothing happened.
“Following the disappointment, we the people living with Sickle Cell Disorder have declared the International Women’s Day, a day of mourning and everything about women celebration reminds us of murderers and I must tell you that 90 percent of sickle cell people are not comfortable with their mothers “
“Some sickle cell patients commit suicide on their own , others are being killed by their mothers and a situation where a mother kills her child you cannot ask her what happened because she will be the first to cry and we shall come for condolences”
“There are several attitudes of these our mothers , this particular gender that God created but it is unfortunate that we found ourselves there. 90 percent of sickle cell patients do not like their mothers”
“This is because they are prime suspects for that crime of genotype incompatibility and our mothers took several dirty steps in hoodwinking our fathers into marriage. Some of our mothers trapped our fathers due to desperation or for material resources through pregnancy while some went to forge the wrong genotype due to desperation” she said.
Maduagwu alleged that several letters to Dr Mrs Nonye Soludo for assistance was frustrated by the Commissioner, adding that she has been making it difficult for them to meet with the First Lady.
According to her, the commissioner, has refused to assist the poor girl Chilotam Ezikwere despite the fact that they are related. Maduagwu disclosed that the girl is now suffering from kidney problem and there is need for the government to intervene and save the life of the young girl.
According to her the girl is now suffering from depression because of the neglect from the family members who have rejected her.
” Somebody brought her to my home that the family has rejected her. She came to my home at age of 14 and now she is 18 and nobody had visited her. She had never been to school because the family abandoned her for a fault not hers. The family never took her to hospital to find out her problem, instead they were buying medicines for her from chemists without prescriptions and this could have damaged her system.
“I appeal to the first lady to extend her generosity to the people living with sickle cell.
I am asking for people to come and help Chilotam to live a normal life and survive her challenges. Since she was brought to our home nobody has come to see her despite she has people who can help” she stated.
Regrettably, Maduagwu said that those in government represent the governor in a negative form.
“This government is trying but the people working with the governor are magicians misinforming the governor about state of things . I want the governor to carry out an independent investigation about the people in his government. He will be surprised to find out that what he is being told is not the true position of things in the state. Obinabo used her personal social media in place of government social media to run her ministry’ she said .
She said that she is fighting because all these children are under the ministry of women affairs and they need attention from the ministry. According to her, people living with sickle cell are suffering under Ify Obinabo because they are not adoptable.
She said that these children cannot be put in a conventional motherless babies homes because they will suffer segregation. She said that she is in the sickle cell fight because she is a sickle cell patients and knows better how to manage them.
She wondered why Ify Obinabo can not for once celebrate with people with sickle cell and show love as a mother. According to her, Obinabo is busy going about her abduction noise just to be popular. “I don’t know what we have done wrong that she does not want to look at our side” she said.
Reacting to the allegations, the Commissioner for Women Affairs Mrs Ify Obinabo said that those living with Sickle Cell should stay with their families.
“I am employed by somebody and if she feels that I am not doing the right thing she should go to court. I don’t know what the woman wants, she can take me and the state government to court and I don’t care. Honestly,I don’t know what she wants and nobody has given me any dine. If she like she can go to anywhere and make a press conference” she contended.
