A victim of the Sierra Leone War from Nigeria, David Anyaele, has denied media reports that he was rehabilitated by President Bola Tinubu when he was governor of Lagos State.
Anyaele, the founding executive director, Centre for Citizens with Disabilities and chairman, Abia State Disability Commission, stated this in a statement in Umuahia, the state capital, yesterday.
He said his attention had been drawn to the reports on some online media platforms, with various misleading titles — particularly the one captioned “Tinubu rehabilitated me after rebels cut off my hands.”
The e-signed statement explained: “I wish to state categorically that President Bola Tinubu didn’t rehabilitate me when I returned from Sierra Leone in 1999”.
“Upon my return, I wrote to the then governors of the South East States seeking assistance to procure artificial hands, but I received no response.”
“However, when I sent the same request to the then governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, he replied and directed that I should appear before a medical board for examination.”
He said the board reviewed his request and recommended that the government should honour it, but unfortunately, that was where the matter ended as no further action was taken.
” However, the response of the then governor of Lagos State, President Bola Tinubu was a relief, unlike the then governors of the South East States.”
”This was the context of the story I shared at the Nkata Umu Ibe event organized by the Centre for Memories in Enugu over the weekend, where I spoke on the topic: “Onye Aghana Nwanne Ya: Advancing for a More Inclusive Ala Igbo.”
He stressed that it was important to clarify that it was one Titi Adebayo who organised a fundraising concert in Lagos for the fitting of his first prosthetic hands in Germany.
”Many well-meaning Nigerians contributed to that effort, for which I remain eternally grateful,” the statement further explained.
