‘How accident turned me to beggar’

Abraham Jiminibee was once an able-bodied, agile young man who, he boasted, could drive over 600 kilometres at a stretch. Currently, unfortunately, he lives at the mercy of generous Nigerians for survival. Jiminibee, who had worked as a commercial driver with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) since 2013, was involved in a ghastly motor accident […]

Abraham Jiminibee was once an able-bodied, agile young man who, he boasted, could drive over 600 kilometres at a stretch. Currently, unfortunately, he lives at the mercy of generous Nigerians for survival.

Jiminibee, who had worked as a commercial driver with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) since 2013, was involved in a ghastly motor accident that caused serious injury to his arm, which, obviously is vital to his job as a driver.

The accident, which, according to him, occurred on May 24, 2018 while he was travelling from Aba to Lagos, almost cost him his arm totally but for the intervention of a God-sent white man, who visited the hospital where he was admitted and offered to pay part of the money needed to carry out a surgery on him. That singular act, he said, saved his arm from being amputated, though he lost his elbow joint, making it impossible for the arm to function normally.

Jiminibee lamented that all he had gotten from his employers since the incident took place was N10,000.

The accident victim narrated, “I was in Aba, the vehicle I normally drive was faulty when my employers asked me to accompany one of the new drivers to Owerri to show him the road. While we were getting close to Owerri, between Umuahia and Owerri township, we had an accident that claimed one life out of the 50 people in the mini luxury bus.

“The accident occurred at about 3am in the morning. It was raining but I couldn’t stop him from driving in the rain because it was not my bus. I was only assigned to show him the road. I initially cautioned him to speed less because of the rain, which he did. Unfortunately, the driver lost control when he was trying to dodge a pothole and that was how we fell over. When the accident occurred, there was no road safety official around to rescue anyone, so before help could come, I had lost so much blood.

“Eventually, I was rescued and taken to a hospital in Owerri. I was immediately admitted and given some injections, drips and blood. The treatment continued and later the hospital said my left arm might be amputated because of the serious damage to my elbow. Fortunately for me, a white man from USA visited the hospital and saw my condition. He spoke with the doctor that he did not want my arm cut off, so he donated N400,000 for a surgery to be carried out to salvage the situation. I added the money to what I had saved to go back to school to carry out the surgery. After the surgery, I discovered I had lost my entire elbow joint. I was lucky that the white man saved my arm from being cut off. And I am happy that I am alive.,”

The accident, he lamented, has rendered his left hand useless because he cannot raise it up neither can he do anything with it. “There is no bone around the elbow area again. It is the flesh and some veins that are joining the upper arm to the forearm. I tried visiting specialist hospitals in Lagos to find out about possible surgery that can make me whole again but because of financial constraint, I have not been able to do that. I have been begging because I cannot work with one of my hands any longer. Also, my dream of going back to school has been shattered.

“But if I can raise enough money to do another surgery to fix an artificial elbow, I will be happy. If not, I will not hesitate to go into an agric business because it is lucrative where I come from, Benue State. My plan is if I am able to raise money, I will locate to a peaceful area in the state where I can buy and store foodstuff for later sale or get fertile plots of land and pay workers to farm and harvest for me,” he said.

Jiminibee appealed to Nigerians to help him so he would not continue to be a beggar. “I am not meant to be a beggar. If I have my two hands, I will be able to work well again and put food on my table, I will be very glad. I was the bread winner of my family before the accident, but now my parents are suffering. They have also been displaced from Guma local government of Benue State where they reside. I really need help,” he pleaded, stressing, “I have passion for business.”

When our reporter called the Media Officer of the TUC, simply identified as Kenneth, on what the organisation has done to assist the accident victim who claimed to be a driver with the Congress, the spokesman said he wasn’t aware of the matter and referred her to the body’s Secretary-General, Barrister Musa Lawal.

There was, however, no response from calls to Barr Lawal, neither did he, at the time of filing this report, respond to the text message sent to him.