… Man with spinal cord injury raises the alarm

• No, you’re fond of disobeying regulations – SCIAN

By Gilbert Ekezie

Mr. Jonah Onyeukwu is a widower who is suffering from a spinal cord injury. Today, he is a sad man. He says some members of the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Nigeria (SCIAN) are making life hellish for him.

He got married in 1997 but his wife died in 2011, leaving three children behind for him to cater for. In spite of that, he refused to beg for alms to cater for his family. Instead, with the support of some people, he opened a shop in 2005 at the front of the Spinal Cord Injury Association Estate at Amuwo Odofin, near Peace and Prayer Estate, Lagos, where he resides.

Through the shop, he has been struggling to raise the children with the little money he makes from the petty trading.

Recently, Onyeukwu visited the corporate headquarters of The Sun Publishing Limited, Lagos, in a wheelchair. And with tears in his eyes, he spoke of intimidation, denial and attempts by the SCIAN authorities to demolish his shop and eject him from the place.

Onyeukwu explained that, since he set up the shop, the chairman of SCIAN, Mr. Obioha Ononogbu, has done everything possible to deprive him of his source of livelihood by petitioning different levels of government to demolish his shop.

According to him, the SCIAN chairman petitioned Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area to destroy his shop. He noted, however, that when the former Vice Chairman of the council, Hon. Adebisi Gbenro, visited his shop with the intent of ordering the demolition, she was so impressed with his effort to stand on his own that she rescinded the demolition order on the spot. Since then, she has become a regular visitor to the shop to encourage him, Onyeukwu said.

“He also wrote a similar petition to the Ministry of Physical Planning, Lagos State, in 2009, and when the officials got to my shop, they saw that the container I used as shop was way off the drainage line and sympathised with me,” he said.

Onyeukwu also stated that, since Ononogbu emerged chairman in 2005 in acting capacity, he refused to conduct election and anyone calling for election has been persecuted with threats of ejection and denial of any benefits that usually accrue to members when philanthropists donate money or food items.

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The widower said: “In my own case, he denied me such benefits for four years with all sorts of intimidation and harassment. I am presently left as a lone ranger because I can fend for myself and do not depend on the gifts from the association to take care of my three children, who are all in school, and myself. Even when the building I was living in was almost collapsing, he refused relocating me to a safer apartment until I nearly lost my family. When eventually he relocated me and the building was renovated, he didn’t allow me to return there. As a result of these persecutions, many faint-hearted ones backed off and allowed him to have his way.

“Now, having failed in co-opting the authorities of Lagos State to demolish my shop, he now wants to take the law into his hands. He has, on several occasions, shunned peace initiatives, including the one proposed by Lagos State Director of Physical Planning.”

He has asked government to protect him from the intimidation of the SCIAN leader.

However, reacting to the allegations, Ononogbu said Onyeukwu was served the notice to quit the premises due his continued misconduct and disregard for the rules and regulations guiding the centre.

He stated that the claim that the former chairman of Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area allowed Onyeukwu to use the portion was false, because it was only the SCIAN authorities that could authorise anyone to use the space in front of the centre.

Ononogbu also explained that the shop in contention was erected against the street trading law of Lagos State, insisting that no government official would consent to violating the law.

“He is not the only member who wished to have a shop in front of the centre, but as law-abiding members, others obeyed the policy of the c centre by not erecting theirs. Also, members of the landlords association in the estate have complained that such shops serve as hideouts for robbers at night,” he said.

The SCIAN chairman added that Onyeukwu wrote a letter to the association in 2010 seeking permission to extend his existing shop to enable him meet customers’ demand, “But the request was not granted because he set up the shop against the policy of SCIAN not to allow shops in front of the centre.”

According to Ononogbu, several quit notices and warnings have been issued to Onyeukwu in the past, but due to the direct intervention of his relatives and others, the association delayed any enforcement.

“We want him to comply with the rules and regulations of the association. That is all. Nobody is persecuting him,” Ononogbu said.