Tears Of Joy As First Lady Reunites Old Woman With Her Children After 38 Years

Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano

Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano, the wife of the Anambra State Governor, hasĀ on Thursday reunited a 72-year-old widow, Rose Anene, with her children.

According to a report by Punch Metro, Mrs. Anene was said to have left her family for an unknown destination for 38 years because of mental ailment.


Records at the Mentally Challenged Home at Nteje, Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State, showed that Anene was brought from Lagos to the home in 2004.

It was gathered that it was in 2014 that Mrs. Obiano took special interest in the 72-year-old mother of five and commenced proper treatment for her.

The commissioner for Womenā€™s Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr. Victoria Chikwelu, said,Ā ā€œIt was only four days ago that Mrs. Obiano ordered that Anene be reunited with her family in Awka, Anambra State.

ā€œUpon Mrs. Aneneā€™s miraculous revelation that she hailed from Awka, we had to traverse the length and breadth of Awka before we could link her with her children at Umudioka, Awka,ā€Ā Chikwelu said.

Speaking on the occasion of the 2018 International Womenā€™s Day and Discharge of former Mentally Challenged Persons on Thursday, Mrs. Obiano officially handed Mrs. Anene over to her first son, Azubuike Anene, in the presence of two of his siblings.

Mrs. Obiano said,Ā ā€œI am delighted that we are gathered here to celebrate the 2018 International Womenā€™s Day, and recovery of some of our brothers and sisters who were once thought incapable of meeting their obligations due to various degrees of mental challenges.

ā€œWe are not forgetting the special case of our sister (Anene) who was once assumed lost but now found and fully recovered, ready to join her kit and kin.ā€

She said over 62 inmates of the Nteje home, drawn from different states, including Abia, Ebonyi, Edo, Oyo and Anambra, had been treated and rehabilitated since her husband became governor in 2014.


She added,Ā ā€We give God almighty all the glory for the recovery of the eleven inmates we are discharging today especially the remarkable case of our sister, Rose.

ā€œIt may interest you to know that last year, one of the recovering inmates was sponsored to a corrective surgery to remove a growth in his two hands as a result of injury sustained at the peak of his illness.

ā€œThe surgery was successfully carried out at Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Awka; and today, he has fully recovered.

ā€œWe have touched many lives positively across our communities through the houses we built for indigent widows, toilets to promote hygiene in rural markets, training and empowerment of over 3,020 women, free cleft lip surgeries for 45 children and care for the mentally challenged, and so on.ā€

She assured of post-recovery rehabilitation for the inmates by making sure they are meaningfully engaged after their discharge.

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