A
70-year-old man, Mr Ogbonnaya Ani in Umuose Urobo, Uburu, Ohaozara
Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, is swimming in the ocean of grief
as seven members of his family have been afflicted with madness one
after the other.
According
to report, Ogbonnaya Ani’s elder brother’s daughter is mentally ill. His younger brother’s son is in the same condition. Three of
his own children, a male and two females, are equally afflicted. His
daughter-in-law is not left out. So, there are six mentally ill persons
in the family and, perhaps, still counting. Worst still, one of Ani’s
mentally challenged daughters is heavily pregnant and no one seems to
know who the lover boy is. And before his first wife died, she exhibited
some signs of madness.
His
mentally challenged son, Igwe Ani, alias Martin Martin, set his house
ablaze. So, currently, Ani and his family are squatting somewhere with
the help of a relation.
Speaking
with a reporter, Ani said, "It first started with Igwe and his sister,
Ozieme joined later. While Igwe’s problem started at home, Ozieme’s
started from outside the community. Again, another of my daughter who is
married and a seamstress is also behaving abnormally. I cannot explain
how this problem came into the family. From our parents, we did not
experience any such thing. It did not happen to my eldest brother, who
had died.
"It
started about 20 years ago and it has been spreading from one person to
another. Even my son’s wife who was married from another village and
living in Enugu with Ozieme is also behaving in a way we cannot
understand. I learnt that she is walking about the street but I have not
seen her. The whole thing is surprising to us. It is an unimaginable
disaster. It is a heavy burden on us and we do not know what to do about
it.
“If not God, perhaps I would have been consumed,” he remarked.
He
is calling on the government, well meaning organisations and
individuals to come to their aid because they have suffered so much.
Source: Daily Sun Newspaper
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