•Mother, a widow, cries for help

When the husband of Mrs. Omowumi Osibanjo died in auto crash on Lagos-Shagamu Road,   in 2013, she accepted her fate.

The union between her and the husband produced three children, two boys and a girl.

Meanwhile, she continued to battle  with the upbringing of the children. Yet, the cruel fate was not done with her.

As a widow, she understood that the future of her three children rested on her sacrifice and hard work. So, she travelled to Sagamu, Ogun State, to start selling fish to fend for herself and the children. The children, Seyi, 8,  Sola, 5, and Oriyomi, 4, she explained later, went to stay with their grandma at Oni, Ondo State.

As was usual in their home at Oni, the children woke up and prepared for school. But around 4pm, her phone rang and the caller told her to come to Oni, quickly. All her pleas that the caller  should tell her what the matter was fell on deaf ears.

She  hurriedly   left her  shop only to get to Oni and learn of another horrible news.

While narrating her ordeal to Sunday Vanguard in Ibadan, tears   filled her eyes ready to drop in quick succession. She used a white cloth that hung loosely on her neck to wipe the tears, cleared her throat to tell her story.

She stated: “I left for my business on Monday, May 23, 2016.  Anytime my grandma  was leaving home, she would drop  the key of her room where she and the children lived with a neighbour. That was how she had been giving the neighbour the key so that when the children returned  before her arrival, they would not be stranded.  I was in my shop at Shagamu without any premonition that something untoward would happen.  But, around 4pm, someone called my number and told me to rush down home.

I asked the caller what the problem was, but she insisted I should come down. When I got home, I was told the wall  of the third   house to ours collapsed and fell on all my three children. It was an Hausa man selling onion that God used for me. He was the one that pulled them from the debris.

How it happened

“I was told the woman that grandma gave the key to was not around at the time my children came home from school. So, when they did not see her, they went to the third house and sat by the wall. Rain had just stopped falling and I think the house which was built with mud was moist and  it suddenly collapsed on them. We had to rush them to a nearby maternity where they told me that their legs, arms were broken. Their skulls were also affected. Now, they are in between life and death. Unless, help comes from kind-hearted people, I don’t want to imagine what will happen”.

She said when people saw her helpless situation, they had to advise her to  take her case to the media, that perhaps help could come her way.

According to her, she needs about N600,000 for the treatment of  the three children. As she anxiously waits for kind response from merciful people, she gave her account details:

 Bank- Stanbic Bank Plc

Account name- Christian ah Adelakun O.

Acct. Number-0003631365

For anyone willing to contact her, her phone number is 08132422642