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Shave: A cat with nine lives • He is wheelchair-bound.
Again, a tree fell and almost crushed him
By JAMES OJO, Abuja
Monday July 19, 2004
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The
tree that fell on him
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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He lost his father, aunt and a friend in motor accident,as
if the trouble were not enough his life was almost snuffed
out by a falling tree.
Thirty-one-year-old Gideon Omatule Anago had a catalogue of
pains and sorrows trailing him like the Biblical Job, but
he has hope and faith in God. He was returning from his in-laws
who live in Auchi, Edo State when he had an accident where
he broke his spinal cord.
In the accident, he lost his father, an aunt and injured friends
who had accompanied him to his traditional wedding ceremonies.
A native of Odek in Abaji local government area of Kogi Stae,
Gideon was a week to his wedding when the accident occurred.
"We had completed the traditional wedding in Auchi, and
we were returning to Abuja to start preparations for the proper
wedding which was fixed for the following weekend," he
told Daily Sun on his sick bed at the Federal Housing Authority
(FHA) Estate at Lugbe along the Airport Road, Abuja.
According to him, he lost his father, his aunt, and a staff
of the Accountant-General office in Abuja in the accident.
All occupants of the vehicle including his wife sustained
injuries but his was the worst. "I heard them calling
my name, actually, I was the last to be taken out of the vehicle.
I overheard discussion that my father was dead but I didn’t
feel any pains on my leg, arm and body."
Not quite long after they were brought out of the vehicle,
good-spirited market women arranged for a vehicle that took
them to a nearby hospital before he was transferred to the
Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital in the FCT.
He spent the next eight months and two weeks in the hospital
before he was asked to leave because of mounting debts.
"By the time I was asked to go home, I had accumulated
a huge debt of N61,200. The drugs prescribed were just too
expensive; the first recommended group cost N28,000 while
the second group cost N20,300."
Gideon resorted to prayers and divine intervention for healing
until last week Tuesday when his faith was put to test by
an evil storm, which uprooted a tree behind his flat and dumped
it on his bed.
Co-tenants and neighbours brought him out of the rubble, but
they could not fathom why his bed should be the target of
the tree.
"This is a strange happening, my brother. It is unbelievable,
imagine, we thought he was dead when the tree fell on him,
this is somebody who cannot lift his hands or legs, he cannot
lift his body. Only God can explain his escape," a neighbour
explained to Daily Sun. Gideon himself described his escape
as God’s miracle.
"My brother, this is miracle, myself I can’t explain
it. It shows that my God is alive, it shows, my God has a
purpose for me, being alive gives me more hope that I shall
walk with my legs again."
When the tree fell on him, what was on his mind? ‘I
can’t explain. I was enveloped by dust and leaves.
I won’t say I thought the end has come, I just focussed
my mind on God who has been keeping me alive, when my brother
and other people came they called my name and when I heard
it, I answered and they brought me out."
Gideon has been relocated to a pastor’s house nearby
and one of his urgent needs is accommodation.
"Presently, I don’t have a house, if not because
of pastor, I don’t know whether I would be sleeping
in the open. So my greatest need now is accommodation, because
I know very soon, my God would heal me completely and I will
walk with my two legs."
Other needs include money for him to buy prescribed drugs
which he said were too expensive.
"My case is not beyond redemption. I know my God is alive.
I need those drugs, to cure me, and for my God to heal me."
Gideon said he would not rule out spiritual attack from all
that had befallen him. "When I look back, I know I had
a spiritual battle. Before the traditional wedding, I fought
several battles in my dream but each time I came out triumphant,
my wife had similar experience, she even went for a deliverance,
so we know, but there is no battle which my God cannot win.
So he will win all the battles of my life." One thing
that has kept Gideon’s hopes high is the commitment
and demonstration of true love from his wife, Esther. "She
never abandoned me, she comes to me everyday. She two had
a fractured leg from the accident, but the good news is that
she did not run away because we have hope of a better tomorrow.
I think this kind of love is not common."
Gideon joined the Ministry of Health in 1996, as a clerk,
after he bagged a National Diploma in Business Administration
from the Federal Polytechnic, Nassarawa.
He thanked the ministry for not reneging in the payment of
his salary but would want more assistance because of the expensive
drugs he needs for speedy recovery.
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