I was soaked for hours before help came — 74-year-old blind man whose home was wrecked by wind storms

…Good-spirited man begins rebuilding the house
By Chinedu Adonu

ENUGU – For 74-year-old Mr. Stephen Ogbo, the rainstorm that ripped through his residence at Ugbo Ezeji, D-Line, Abakpa Nike, Enugu metropolis, was a terrifying, unforgettable experience. The ugly incident left him soaked in water for hours, trapped in a shattered building and unable to find his way to safety because of his blindness.

As the storm raged, Ogbo could neither see the destruction around him nor find his way out. He remained helpless until an unidentified female tenant eventually came to his rescue.

Recounting his ordeal, Ogbo said the woman approached him after he had spent several hours soaked in water, unable to escape from the disaster.

“The female tenant came to me after several hours but couldn’t find any way to escape as a blind man. She said: “Daddy, we have been trapped by the windstorm,” he recalled.

According to him, the woman held him, led him out of the destroyed building, and searched for shelter where he could find safety. Although he could not identify his rescuer, he remembered that the voice belonged to a woman.

“I do not know the name of the woman who came to my rescue, but the voice was a woman’s voice,” he said.

A native of Nomeh Unateze in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, Ogbo said he had lived in the compound for about eight years before the incident.

The rainstorm damaged the residential building housing 23 families, ripping off its roof and destroying property belonging to tenants. The incident left the occupants struggling to find shelter and salvage their belongings.

For the affected families, what began as an ordinary evening quickly turned into a nightmare, with the destruction leaving them with the difficult task of restoring their homes and livelihoods.

A cry for help

However, days after the incident, help has begun to come following an appeal by the victims for help.

Chief Kingsley Chizoba Nweke, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District, where the blind man hails from, has commenced the reconstruction of the damaged home after watching a video in which the victims appealed for assistance.

Nweke visited the affected residents at Ugbo Ezeji and said their plight moved him to intervene, and announced that building materials had been purchased and contractors mobilised to commence the reconstruction.

“It’s a pity, actually. If you look at the roof, it is damaged, and the place is messed up. I saw them interviewed two days ago and they cried out that they needed help.

“That touched me so much, so I said it was important that I come to their rescue. We have bought the materials, mobilized the contractors, and the work has already commenced,” he said.

He explained that the exercise would involve reinforcing the affected structures and replacing damaged roofs to enable the residents to return to their homes.

“My priority is to make sure they get back to their houses and keep living again,” he said.

Nweke said the intervention was humanitarian and not politically motivated, insisting that he would have assisted the victims irrespective of their  political affiliations.

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“This is not politically motivated. If they were wearing the caps of a different party and they said they needed help, I would still come. They just need help, not because of party,” he said.

He described the intervention as part of his broader humanitarian activities, which he said included supporting people who had lost their jobs and means of livelihood.

“I will do more than this. We have been doing more than this already. This is just a minor thing from what we have been doing,” he said.

He answered my cry.

Another resident and woman leader in the area, Mrs. Promise Ugochukwu, described the incident as devastating. She said the storm occurred between 9pm and 10pm, when strong winds ripped off the roof, and rainwater damaged household belongings.

Ugochukwu thanked Nweke for responding to the residents’ appeal, describing his intervention as an answer to their call for help.
“When I cried out to my father, Odaa Opuo (Nweke), the man whom I trusted, he answered me,” she said.

Ogbo also expressed gratitude to Nweke for the intervention and prayed for God’s guidance in his political career.

For the 23 families affected by the disaster, the immediate challenge is to restore their homes, replace damaged belongings, and regain the sense of security they lost when the storm struck.

But for Ogbo, the memory of that night will remain tied to the kindness of a woman whose name he may not know, but whose helping hands guided him out of danger.

In the aftermath of the destruction, her intervention stands as a reminder that even in moments of helplessness, an unexpected act of kindness can make the difference between despair and hope.