Group, others raise alarm over upsurge in lunatics in Onitsha
Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Anambra state chapter and some concerned residents of Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra state, have raised alarm over the rise in the number of mentally challenged persons and destitute in parts of the metropolis.
Some citizens who spoke to Orient Weekend on the development expressed fears that, if no drastic measures were taken by the state government, Onitsha metropolis would soon be overwhelmed by mad people and the destitute.
A salesgirl at the Onitsha main-market, who spoke to this paper under the condition of anonymity, on the subject, expressed surprise that despite efforts by the state commissioner for women and children affairs, Lady Ndidi Mezue, to curtail the spate of insane people in the state, Onitsha is still littered with mad people.
“The commissioner and her team are always picking up mad people yet their population seems to be on the rise. It’s as if more of them are coming out every day to join the army of mad people living on the streets of Onitsha.”
She went further: “They are everywhere. Go to Zik’s round-about at Onisi Onira retreat and see how mad people and destitute turn themselves into traffic wardens to assist in control of the heavy traffic during rush hours.
“If you move down to the DMGS round-about, you will meet another set of mad people mostly women who hardly move around unless they go to search for food and come back almost immediately. One good thing with them is that they are not hostile and do not even hurt an ant. If you move towards Upper Iweka axis from the Zik’s roundabout, these mad people are there in large numbers. They seem to have turned the fly-over bridge into their abode, resting endlessly.”
“Some will go to sleep and never wake up for hours making one to believe that he or she may have gone to the world beyond as he or she never wakes up but always look stone dead. Visitors to Onitsha from Imo state are greeted by insane people at the deplorable portion of the Onitsha/Owerri road, near the Obodoukwu junction in Okpoko. Private vehicle occupants always wind up their glasses on seeing them to avoid contact with them,” she adds.
Chief Linus Muokaha, a trader at Oseokwodu market, Onitsha, also disclosed that many mad people also loiter around the markets. “We have scores of mad people here and we cannot force them out of the market as we have no such power. Similarly, they are everywhere in Onitsha trying to survive. They are at DMGS, Zik’s roundabout, Upper Iweka, among other places, and government is not doing enough to curtail their number.
“They have taken over Onitsha and environs thereby making the city look dirty and unkempt,” he adds.
A resident of Odoakpu, Chief Mike Onyeme, who also spoke on the issue, blamed it on poverty. “I’m not surprised with the increase in the number of mad people because there is poverty in the land and government is not helping out. I tell you that 70 per cent of these mad people are as a result of hardship. How many families have their three square meals a day? Government should do something now. That was my fear during the EndSARS protest. The protesters were hungry and you know that a hungry man is an angry man.
Anambra state CLO chairman, comrade Vincent Ezekwueme, who also expressed concern over the rising number of mad people in Onitsha, stressed that state government should do the needful by making extra efforts to attend to the needs of the affected persons. “It is unfortunate that serious thing is not being done to better their welfare. The increase could be curtailed if government makes better their welfare. These mad persons should not be abandoned like sheep without shepherd. Most of them became mad out of frustration as breadwinners to their various families.”
Orient Weekend recalls that the ministry of women and children welfare had, in one of their recent raids on mad people, rescued a notorious mentally challenged teenager and her infant baby who lived dangerously in a gangway under Niger Bridge Onitsha. The rescue was effected following a tip-off to the commissioner by an Asaba, Delta state capital-based resident who plies the route on daily basis to work at Nigeria Bottling Company, Onitsha.
On receiving the tip-off for help, the commissioner was said to have immediately deployed a team of social workers who, after days of planning and visits to the dangerous abode of the nursing mother, successfully rescued her and her son.
During interrogation which was personally conducted by Commissioner Mezue at her Awka office, the mentally challenged lady gave her name as Ngozi, an indigene of Abia state and a former resident of Onitsha Army Barracks.
Speaking soon after the rescue, Lady Mezue, said “I am relieved that this difficult rescue operation was carried out successfully by my team, we equally recovered a large amount of money from her. I am glad that mother and child are being taken care of in government facility until the girl’s family comes forward to identify her,” she said.
