Life
THE NATION ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2012
Ozubulu: Giving succour to the disabled O ZUBULU community in Ekwusigo local government area, Anambra State is a home for the invalid. It hosts the Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled, Old and Tramps (RECDOT). It has 86 inmates 40 of whom are mainly imbeciles. Other inmates are either cripples, physically and mentally challenged or vulnerable children between the ages of six and 18. There are a few others with medical condition known as ‘hydrocephalic’ meaning accumulation of fluid in the brain. The fluid so accumulated weighs down the patient and therefore makes him/her unstable, forcing him to sit permanently in one place. The Director of RECDOT, Mrs Rosemary Nkiru Odunukwe said three inmates who are suffering from the hydrocephalic problem require about N1.7 million each for neuro-surgery. She •Continued from page 53
ment of the Court will be respected ‘’ and after the conclusion of the case I will like to reach out to you , shake hands and be friends again. I want the relationship to continue .I am not mandated to resolve the issue .I am not empowered to settle the case ‘’, he told Dickson in the presence of one of the bank officials, Njoku and Dickson’s friend.. Now , since the Bank has not made any move to settle the matter Okpako who is Dickson’s counsel, said there is no going back again as they would end up in court. ’’Kenny Aliu is full of rhetorics , he is painting words and cajoling us. It is grossly unfair , the cheating is too much. We are heading to court,’’ he vowed . Speaking on the issue, a retired
From Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, Nnewi
added that another patient Chizoba Nwogu from Abakaliki has over grown the crisis and can now move about. The other two that need the operation are Osita Nnamso (17) and Onyebuchi Onukwuli (28). She said the centre is also in need of over N3 million for corrective surgeries and physiotherapy for other 15 inmates. It has expended over N4 million on rehabilitative surgery at the Salvation Army Center Oji, Enugu State and Okani rehabilitation centre Gboko in Benue State. At the centre, most of the inmates move about on wheel chairs while others without practically crawl to get to the next point under the strict supervision of care givers. There are two care givers for every seven to 10 inmates in a room. Although the conditions of the inmates
look hopeless, they have found happiness and uncommon dexterity in learning trades. Mrs Odunukwe said “We have problem of accommodation here because if one person contacts a disease, it would spread to others hence we had a serious case of meningitis which affected four children leading to the death of one and three permanently in a terrible situation. You can imagine 7 to 11 children in a room manned by two home care givers. So we need accommodation. RECDOT caters for all children irrespective of tribe, state of origin or religion. It provides technical education and teaching opportunities for the physically challenged to acquire skills and education that will make them self reliant. It has a school that offers pre-nusary, primary and secondary education and a chapel under construction. Although the environment is not too hygienic but the care givers are trying their best. Odunukwe confessed that most of the inmates were picked from where they were being used for collecting alms. For the two with ‘hydrocephalic’ condition, they are always in sitting positions and cry loud if touched on the heads.
According to Mrs. Angela Mbadiugha, a manager in the centre, “There is too much water in their heads and according to the doctor in Oyo about N1.7 million is enough for the surgery excluding other expenses. The children have good functioning brains but need surgery to drain the water to enable them leave normally. The heads are abnormal and because of that their trunks could not carry their heads.’’ The centre is home to 44 males and 42 females who are all students. One of its former inmates, Okwuchukwu Okafor has graduated from the university and now works at Federal Government College, Umunze. An inmate, Cynthia Adinma, who is in SS2 praised God for the ‘abilities in disability’ He pleaded for public and in computing their new school/residential structure to enable them live/learn under better conditions. She said they are happy with their situation and thanked their director for being always there for them. “We are facing a big challenge by the lack of electricity here and the electricity generating sets we have are not functional, so we equally need assistance in that direction,’’ Adinma added.
Case of the ‘counterfeit’ dollars senior banker who pleaded for anonymity described the attitude of the bank as ungodly .She said ‘’ I once worked in a very big and popular bank where my job was to be receiving foreign currencies .When such currencies are brought to the counter you are supposed to verify by using mercury light or VU that will show all the features of the money and check, these detective materials are always at the cashier’s disposal all the time .Then again you will use counting machine and if there is any counterfeit among the money they are immediately returned to the client who brought the foreign money and if it is Nigerian money, naira, then it is perforated
.The money is counted one by one by the cashier who after stamping the tellers would give the customer a copy. Once the tellers are stamped with the bank’s logo it means you have consummated it, and the transaction is sealed. Therefore the cashier is liable for anything that happened thereafter. She continued ‘’ foreign currencies are not kept in the Branch office, they are sent to the head office same day .So any fake money discovered must be returned same day and not even the second day. I can’t believe that somebody will bring fake dollars for several days coming and going into the bank’s premises for six days without being reprimanded and reported to the po-
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lice. There is no excuse at all. The cashier who collected the dollar bills should be questioned and made to pay. This is unprofessional and can’t be true at all. It is laughable’’. Barrister Yinka Oyetunde does not agree with FCMB that the dollar bills their client deposited were all fake, he said ‘’Once the money is deposited whatever the denomination , it is the duty of the receiving officer to verify the material the genuineness of the currency .Once the cashier accepts the currency, after certifying same not to be fake , the depositor is free of any foul play .So, once that is done the bank can’t turn it back and say it is fake. For, that is the reason why the bank itself always hangs warning signal, on the walls for their
clients if they are withdrawing money that ‘’You should count your money at the counter before you leave.’’ Oyetunde raises further posers: The bank has the power to perforate any fake money in order to discourage the client from taking it to another bank for transaction by the depositor .So, if the bank enjoys the power , I don’t see any sense in a situation whereby a depositor has made series of deposit of certain currency and the bank was not turning him back the first day , If the bank is ready to settle the matter amicably with the client , the, matter can be resolved but if the bank insists that the money is fake then it needs the attention of the court.”