Under Bridge Couple Rejects Housing Offer, Demands For Money

•The couple and their child under the bridge

The man who is raising his family under the bridge at Cele bus stop, Lagos, Monday Obuh has rejected an offer from a P.M.NEWS reader in the United Kingdom who offered him a free accommodation.

Monday Obuh, his two-year old boy and pregnant wife who are still living under the bridge along Oshodi-Apapa expressway also rejected the offer of a room by the U.K-based kind-hearted Nigerian who sent money to his nephew in Lagos and asked him to do everything possible to get Obuh and his family an accommodation..

Instead, Obuh said he preferred to be given money by the anonymous donour. He is asking for N100,000 cash instead of the room.

When the good Nigerian read the couple’s story on line in P.M.NEWS last Friday, he immediately offered Monday Obuh and his family a self-contained apartment.  But after inspecting the house, Obuh rejected it on the ground that a detached house (flat) will not afford him the opportunity to mix freely with the people.

The U.K. based Nigerian then offered Obuh and his family a room at 13, Church Street, Off Gbajobi Bus Stop, Itele Road, Ota, Ogun State. Obuh again rejected the offer.

He demanded for N100,000 cash instead.

Obuh also demanded for a business he could do to sustain his family. To this request, a lady banker based in Lagos who also craved anonymity, was moved by the family’s plight and offered to assist him.  The young lady bought buckets, stove and other things for Obuh.

Obuh and the lady later visited a kiosk around Itele Road, Ota where he could be selling the building materials. Obuh again rejected the offer to stay at Ota and demanded for cash.

Speaking with P.M.NEWS this morning, the U.K. based Nigeria expressed shock that Obuh could reject a genuine offer to assist his family.

“As soon as I read his story in P.M.NEWS on Friday, I became restless. I then got in touch with my nephew in Lagos to liaise with P.M.NEWS.

“I arranged to pay for a room to settle his family because of the child and the pregnant wife. I had wanted to buy a mattress, stove and other materials to ensure that the family can live a normal life again. Thereafter, I intend to empower him by giving him money to start a business. He told my nephew he wanted to sell building materials, I intend to assist him on that after he might have settled down.

With Obuh’s insistence that he should be given money and his preference to continue living under the bridge, the kind Nigerian said he was helpless.

Also speaking on phone today, the lady banker who had offered to assist Obuh regretted that Obuh mistook her gesture an opportunity to collect money from people, using him.

She said: “Yesterday, I used my ATM to withdraw money. I gave him N9,000 for mattress and another N4,000 for out of pocket expenses. But he thought I was giving him part of the money donated by people to him.

“He demanded for N100,000 saying that if I failed to give him, he was ready to back out of the  arrangement.  He said his helpers should come to his abode under the Cele bridge.”

The banker expressed disgust about Obuh’s attack on her integrity saying, “he has a criminal mind. He has an ulterior motive. He insisted the money I gave him was not enough, insisting on N100,000.”

— Ayodeji Dedeigbo

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