| Ola Oni’s widow
goes blind
By JULIANA FRANCIS
Friday July 16, 2004
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• Mrs
Ola-Oni being aided by a relation |
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Barely five years after the sudden death of human rights
activist and social crusader, Comrade Ola Oni, the widow,
Comrade Kehinde Ola-Oni, has gone blind.
According to the widow, the problem started on March 19, 2001
when a team of policemen was sent to arrest her allegedly
on the instruction of the then Oyo State Governor and close
associate of her late husband, Alhaji Lam Adesina.
Comrade Kehinde Ola-Oni said the policemen ordered her to
open the gate, and when she did, she was attacked with a substance
which was sprayed into her eyes at very close range.
She said she was shocked to learn from the police when she
got to their office that she was arrested on the order of
the then governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina.
“I could not believe my ears when the police told me
that it was Lam that sent them to arrest me and treat me in
that manner. This is a man whom my husband used all strategies,
all instruments to make him what he was. I also supported
my husband to achieve the goal. Yet he thought the best way
to pay Ola Oni back was to victimise his widow.”
She said since the incident of March 19, 2001, she has not
been able to use her eyes to see again adding that some of
her property were destroyed, while part of the house caught
fire when a tear gas canister was shot into a room.
Comrade Kehinde Ola-Oni, who just returned from a medical
trip to Berlin, Germany, said doctors in the German hospital
had operated upon her eyes twice, yet the condition has not
improved.
“They first operated on the left which was badly affected,
and later, on the right eye. The doctor gave me a pair of
medicated glasses and said I should be coming for medical
check-ups. They placed me on drugs (pills and eye drops).
Some of the drugs are recommended for use for the rest of
my life. But how will I be able to afford the expensive drugs?”
The cost of the overseas trip, according to her, was borne
by her daughter, Ronke, who is based in Germany, with assistance
from an insurance company, also in Germany.
She added that Ronke is also financially handicapped now as
she had just put to bed, and on a 2-year maternity leave.
The treatment, she said, has gulped over four million naira
now.
The family of the late activist is currently experiencing
real hard times. The widow told Daily Sun when the reporter
visited around 1.00 p.m. that none of the members of the household
had taken breakfast, adding that two days earlier, the family
stayed without food.
She said the family lives at the mercy of people who come
to give money and foodstuffs, saying one Mrs. Ariyo, a neighbour,
who is also a widow, had visited her family on occasions to
give them foodstuff and money. She said the woman looked after
her children when she was away to treat her eyes in Germany.
Showing deep concern on the incident that led to her blindness,
Comrade Kehinde Ola-Oni said, “I know if Lam’s
wife is in this condition, he won’t be a happy man today.”
She was, however, full of praise for the incumbent Oyo State
governor, Senator Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja, who, she said, struck
out the case Lam Adesina instituted against her and the family
in court. The case was terminated on April 7, 2004 after three
years.
“The first time the governor saw me in this condition,
he was almost moved to tears. He was so concerned about my
health that he gave me a huge amount of money to go and start
a medical treatment at the University College Hospital, Ibadan.”
The widow, who detests begging appealed to well meaning Nigerians
to come to the rescue of the family from the pangs of suffering.
“Everybody knows that I am not a lazy woman. I retired
as a senior typist in the civil service without any blemish.
But with the condition I am now, I cannot do any work.
“Governor Ladoja has promised to give my children who
have just finished their studies jobs, so that they would
be on their own. I am also appealing to other governors, President
Olusegun Obasanjo, first ladies across the nation and Nigerian
philanthropists to come to our aid. I do not think we deserve
this hardship with what our family had offered the nation.”
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