Paul Arisa's Family Thank Gov Ikpeazu For N1m Donation

Press Release

Re: Family of cancer patient Paul Arisa deny that Abia State Govt is flying him abroad for treatment

I saw the below report from 'A BLOG' and opted to open up after decidedly keeping quiet on the Paul Arisa saga.

The crux of the article by the blog is that a family member told the publishers that the state government "donated N1m but only gave N400k" and that the news that the state governor is taking the patient abroad for further treatment is a hoax.

Permit me to give a lie to that article by stating that indeed the Governor fulfilled his promise of donating N1m.

Take note of my post below where I mentioned that I delivered a letter from an ailing Abiriba man to the wife of the Governor and a copy marked to her husband. That post was made long before the Arisa appeal surfaced online (to my personal knowledge) but I decided not to mention his name or the amount involved. I also chose to stay off online appeals  that later surfaced long after I published that note.

It would have amounted to politicking with someone's misfortune to disclose the name of the individual at that time. And that wouldn't have been me or what my humble Governor and his wife would have wanted. 

That was also why when most people drew my attention to the viral posts and asked that I plead for the intervention of the Governor I said nothing. The only person I responded to was a young man from my village  who never saw anything good in Governor Okezie Ikpeazu but decided to call me on the phone to ask that the Governor makes an intervention. In anger over his past position on the Governor whose Appeal Court misfortune he and others celebrated and paid an online media to publish a doctored video titled "joy in Abirba", I told him off and asked him to also take the plea to Otti and the APGA senatorial candidate for Arisa's constituency who has been distributing money to voters. I firmly believe that a man who can spend colossal sums to acquire power should at least have a human heart to help a dying kinsman. Why not inform the man you called messiah to make an intervention at this time of need?

Never mind that though. 

It is just a human me angry with the hypocrisy of men. 

The caller didn't know that long before he made his call Governor Okezie was already on that matter in a positive way without political considerations on who rejoiced or not. And of course without noise and fanfare.

The truth is that the family of Arisa Paul passed a letter, through me, requesting assistance from the wife of the Governor in December 2015. She responded 2 days after receiving the letter and her husband approved N1m for immediate disbursement. The letter from Arisa's family stated clearly that they needed N200,000 per month for chemotherapy for 8 months.

Note carefully, again, the request stated N200k per month. I have copies with me.

By February 2016 the family had received a total of N1m. 

I am in possession of a letter from the Family thanking the Governor and his wife for the money. 

 I have all this while been in contact with the family and it was actually through them I got the information that N1m has been paid. Not through Government sources. 

I can therefore boldly state that the information circulated by the quoted blog is absolutely false. If contacted by the blog, I will offer them a copy of the dully signed letter of appreciation from the family as well as phone numbers of the family contacts to Arisa Paul for verification. The same contacts that wrote the Governor's wife initially and copied her husband.

Hopefully the blog will publish the correct position.

It might be important to state that I have never met Arisa Paul in my life and only got to know one of his family members when they called to ask me to thank the Governor for the support given to their son and also deliver the letter of appreciation. I also did not participate in the payment process but only got information on the payments from Arisa's family members. It was my master who is not in Government that first informed me of the situation in December and gave me the letter. He is not a direct relation of Arisa but a kind hearted Abiriba man that people regularly run to when in need. Of course he also contributed his own cash to the effort.

With regards to the Governor's offer to take the ailing Abian abroad for further treatment, my understanding is that he reached that decision following his personal physician's visits and reports on the progress of the patient. Recall that I stated in the below article that the Governor's wife was so concerned that she asked her personal physician to personally intervene while she looks for funds. 

The Government did not just donate money but also was monitoring the patient's progress. It was such monitoring visits that brought to the fore the need to take the patient abroad for further treatment. Arisa's Doctor helped to get the medical records ready as well as provided information on the best place to take him to in US. 

As confirmed by the SSA to the Governor on new media, Newman Ubani, when the Governor was informed of his current status he immediately directed that everything be done to ensure that Arisa is treated and returned to Abia healthy and strong to contribute his quota to the building of a new Abia.

At this stage I must personally thank all those who positively responded to the plea by Arisa's friends and family to donate to help him. You are all great folks and God in heaven will reward you. Do not think that the Governor's intervention made your effort useless. Not at all.

While the Government has acted to deploy the weight of the state to save her citizen, the path to full recovery is long and in God's hands. Your contributions alongside the Governor's initial donation of N1m must have helped to keep him alive to date and will likely still be necessary post surgery to ensure his total rehabilitation.

All of you are God's angels and Arisa's heroes. It shall be well with you in Jesus name.

Let us pray for the full recovery of this young man and orphan that life has dealt badly with. Inside me I feel his wilderness experience might just be coming to an end and his story if about to change positively through this trial. God moves in a mysterious way and all things will work together for good to them that Love God. 

Even this will end in praise to the Almighty God.

JOK

Coming up next is a post appealing for funds from well meaning Nigerians for Paul Arisa...This really breaks my heart,I have been turning the other cheek to this story but i cant anymore after viewing the pictures just now for the first time yesterday....OMG!