SAD! Two children die of hunger in Ibadan

Many people were shocked yesterday that two children starved to death on Tuesday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The discovery followed an unscheduled visit by the state police command to Celestial Street in Agbowo.

The street is densely populated with sparse lines of......
demarcation, typical of similar densely populated city neighbourhoods. The area is close to the nation’s premier university, the University of Ibadan (UI).

Despite the area’s proximity to affluent neighbourhoods, the children could not get help, according to their host.

When the police convoy arrived in the area, surprise was written on the faces of residents and passersby. Many followed their vehicles to find out if a heavy crime had been committed in the area.

But they soon discovered that Amarachi Ukoha, 16, and Munachi Madagu, three, died because the breadwinner of the family, Mr Kunle Ayoola, could not feed them.

He also failed to provide the medical treatment for them because he had no money to take to the hospital.

Ayoola, 20, said he could not help the children because of his poor income, adding that those who could help were also unavailable.

He is married to Chinonye, also 20. They have an 18-month old baby. Chinonye had Munachi for her first husband and brought him to her new home. Her younger sister, Amarachi, 16, came to live with them.

She was said to have died of hunger, which was compounded by diarrhoea when the family was preparing to bury Munachi.

Both died in an eight-room bungalow. They were thought to have been struck by a strange illness that caused their death. But Ayoola confessed that death visited them because he could not feed them. Munachi’s photo showed that he was malnourished.
The family man gathers metals from dustbins and dump sites and sells them at Ogunpa Market in Ibadan. But the income, according to him, is so small that he could not afford to feed his family well.

He said he earned about N500 whenever business was good. But that was a far cry from meeting the basic needs of his six-member family, which includes his maternal grandmother.

Sad!

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