A blind elderly father has been left alone and homeless after his children allegedly abandoned him to take care of their mother.
A Good Samaritan named Olapeju Agunbiade posted the man’s plight on Facebook after a commercial motorcycle rider dropped him off at Omotayo Maternity late at night and left him there.
The man, identified as Mr Olaseni Arotiba, 75, was taken in, given a place to spend the night, and fed.
When asked about his home and family, he explained that he had been staying in a hotel and the hotel just evicted him because they needed to renovate. He said he spent the previous night in the home of his “caregiver” but had to leave.
Asked who paid for his hotel, he said his son Mayorkun Arotiba paid for him to stay in the hotel for an extended period but he can no longer be reached.
He added that the hotel did not want to evict him, so they called his son Mayorkun to come and pick him but Mayorkun never showed up.
The maternity staff took his phone and called his children, but they didn’t want anything to do with him.
When she was called, his daughter said: “I do not have a father. I ceased to have a father when i was a child.”
His son was also called but he said he is in the hospital looking after their mum. He added that he and his sister are both busy taking care of their mother.
“The long and short is that none of his contact is ready to care for him or take responsibility,” the Good Samaritan said.
All the elderly man has in his account is N10,000.
Efforts to get a nursing home to accept him have been unsuccessful so far.
In an update, Olapeju said the elderly man has now been taken to “Ring Road state hospt. Accident and Emergency dept.”
She urged parents to be involved in the lives of their families to avoid experiencing the old man’s reality.
She wrote: “So much came out of this encounter.
“Let us do all it takes to take care of what we call ‘home’. This include our wives/husbands, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends and our neighbours.
“Omo niyi,omo ni de. Omo lasheinde to ba dale. E se re ko dara o. That future is closer than we assume.”
See video of the elderly man lamenting below.
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