Senator pays N2.5m bill for cancer patients

Succour has come the way of Dorcas Adepitan and Omolara Onibudo, two cancer patients as Senator Iyiola Omisore has paid their N2.5m medical bills. Before the senator’s gesture, Adepitan, nine and Onibudo, 20, had cried out for financial assistance to enable them to combat the cancers.
PUNCH Metro had on December 12 published the pathetic story of Adepitan and Onibudo who were diagnosed with the cancer of the bone and cancer of the lip respectively.
Omisore presented the N2.5m cheque to the two patients under the auspices of Eko Lions Club at the Lions Club International Institute in Lagos on Thursday.
He thanked The PUNCH and the Lions Club for their intervention in bringing the plight of the patients to limelight, saying without them, succour might not have come their way.
He said if not for the publication, the wrong impression would have been created that Nigerians live in a society of heartless and insensitive people.
Omisore said, “While it may be true that wicked and heartless people abound everywhere, it is also true that humane and sensible people are not in a short supply.
“It behoves us to always draw attention to cases needing humanitarian support, confident that God is able to touch hearts and raise help in ways distinctly His; never must we despair, lose hope or give up the battle for a better society.
“Let’s move from here to educate and enlighten everyone that when we give a helping hand, we are not only discharging our God-given charge but also giving a token back to the society that has given us so much.”
He promised to redouble his efforts to see to it that cases such as Adepitan and Onibudo’s  would automatically be taken over by the government or some organisations for remediation without passing through appeal in the media.
He urged Nigerians to learn to be their brother’s keepers, saying that judging  by what the people were passing through in the country today,  the people needed an “avalanche of Good Samaritans.”
“By that way, we shall drastically reduce frustration, distress and criminal activities in the land and the high walls of bitterness and hatred will come crashing down like the Berlin Wall of yore. Our society will be the safer and saner for it,” Omisore said.
At the event, Professor Emeritus and Founder of African Cancer Centre, Olufemi Williams, said an estimated 500,000 Nigerians died from cancers yearly.
He said close to $200m (N31.2bn) was spent yearly by Nigerians who went for treatment of cancer.
He said his centre needed only between $40m (N6.24bn) and $50m (N7.8bn)  to stop people from going abroad for cancer treatment.
Williams said, “One thing I find in Nigeria and other parts of Africa is that whenever they want to build a house, they start from the roof. And by the time they get to the foundation, there is no more space.
”With just $50m, Nigeria could be brought to international limelight in cancer cure. There is need for the relevant authorities to build the necessary institutions in the country to address the scourge.”
When our correspondent sought the views of Adepitan and Onibudo, they were grateful to Omisore for coming to their aid.
Onibudo said specifically that the gesture had rekindled her belief that there are some Nigerians that are kind-hearted.