Ayodele Olubuse

Mrs. Ember Vitalis, a flood victim was delivered of triplets yesterday with no house, no food, no hope but was later accommodated to squat in a kitchen by a friend.

According to one activist and philanthropist, Ukan Kurug “Pathetically, the woman was left without choice yesterday as she fed the beautiful triplets who cried all day with water she scooped from a nearby well. As if it was to be a godly answer, they all stooped crying and were taken into the shanty kitchen accommodation made available by a friend. They have been victims of both the Fulani herdsmen attack in 2011 and this year again, were victims of the flood that brought down their house on the outskirts of Makurdi, the Benue State Capital. This will be a summary tale of the challenges of this beautiful but now frustrated mother”.

“I knew her at the International Market Flood IDPs camp in Makurdi when I worked there as a volunteer under BENGONET . She was heavily pregnant and when labour time came, she was taken to the Clinic provided at the camp by the Nigerian Air force. There, they predicted according to medical observations that she would gift birth to twins. As the process of decamping had started coupled with the limited medical resources at the camp, she had to be taken out to a proper hospital.”

“BENGONET came in and catered for her all the time she stayed at Madonna Hospital, Makurdi and paid all her bills. When she was in labour for almost a week and could not put to bed, her mother in law decided that, they should be allowed to go home. On reaching home, perhaps from the shakes in the vehicle, she delivered the triplets at home. Unfortunately, as earlier mentioned, their house had collapsed as a result of the flood that hit the state”.

A friend to Mrs. Iember’s mother in law offered them a kitchen for accommodation as her home is of just 2 rooms for a large family. The kitchen offered them is full of crevices and was being patched with mud as at the time we visited the home. The newborns have no food, no cloth, no proper shelter and no medication as they were delivered at home. The environment in which they are staying on the outskirts of Makurdi; the communities living far after Owner Occupier settlement. It is indeed a pathetic sight to see them go through this.

On the whereabouts of her husband, Mrs. Iember explained that, her husband who is a commercial motorcyclist at Daudu, a suburb on the Makurdi-Lafia road was seen once since the news of her delivery and lamented that, she wished people could come to adopt the children since she didn’t have the capacity to cater for them and herself and prayed that, God should spare them. She was visibly exhausted and pale when we visited and her head remained bent all through the time of our stay.

Mrs. Helen Teghtegh, the Executive Director (ED) of Community Links and Human Empowerment Initiative has been the one who showed in commitment towards this woman and her babies and was the first to make provision for some basic items and bottled water for the children when she learnt that, they had taken well water on grounds of necessity.