49-year-old widow, Dorothy Dike and her son, Osinachi Ndukwe, whose minibus (Korope) was auctioned at N405,000 by the Lagos State government in Alausa, Ikeja, have received well over one million naira as donations from Nigerians.
According to Vanguard, she said she has been receiving donations from well-meaning Nigerians, including the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olajide Adediran, popularly called Jandor and his running mate, Funke Akindele, who visited her and her son, weekend, with a donation of N500,000.
Dorothy said, so far, over N1 million had been donated to her family out of which N700, 000 was paid to the original owner of the bus, Ife Ikechukwu, who sold the bus to Osinachi on hired purchase at the rate of N1.8 million out of which only N300,000 was paid before the vehicle was impounded.
She narrated: “I never believed that Nigerians could come to our aid. I am a mother of two who has been struggling to make ends meet. My mother had been supportive enough and when the burden was heavy here in Lagos, I thought of relocating to the village to stay with her, unfortunately, she died recently and the situation grew worse.”
Giving the breakdown of the donations to Vanguard, she said: “Apart from the PDP candidate, one of my church members connected us with a chief in Ajah, Lagos, who donated N300,000, while the remaining was by other good Samaritans, who contacted us after reading about our story in Vanguard newspaper.”
Responding to what she will do with the remaining money, Dorothy said: “The stress I went through since the vehicle was impounded has negatively affected my health and I need to take a break to medically treat myself. I am not too well as I speak with you and I don’t want to break down.
“I have warned my son never to drive against traffic anywhere but I will stress on that later when I regain my health.”
In a chat with Vanguard, Osinachi said he would like to be a chemist rather than a commercial driver.
According to him, “I was trained as a chemist in Ajegunle, Lagos having completed my apprenticeship for a period of eight years.
“However, my boss did not establish me to date. I became a commercial driver to avoid idleness and this has landed me in trouble. Having completed three months jail term over traffic offences, I have been running around to see if somebody could help me to practice as a chemist.
“The owner of the vehicle had written off my debt when we paid N700,000, but I need accommodation so that I can reunite with my immediate family. Above all, I wish to practise as a chemist, but I don’t have the financial power to do this.”
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