I’ve forgiven armed bandits who removed my eyes, says ex-TASCE student

…PhD holder victim recalls 21 years after

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NIGERIA: THE midnight of July 20, 1995 will forever remain indelible in the memory of Ebonhor Michael Ndidi, who lost his two eyes in an unexpected manner.

He was a 200 level student of Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), Ijebu-Ode studying Geography/Social Studies.   Ebonhor was struggling hard to send himself to school and as part of working towards acquiring sound education, he was doing menial job as a bus conductor to earn income to pay his tuition fees and attend to other needs as a student.

However, on this fateful day, he experienced a temporary setback in his life when armed bandits stormed his home, and raided about four apartments which included his.

The gunmen carted away large number of properties, but Ebonhor’s poverty level worked against him, as he became the major victim of the robbers’ raid.
The five-man armed gang, who stormed Ebonhor apartment, having raided other tenants, asked him for the money, which he could not provide.  He recalled that at the time the bandits got to his room, he was having merely N25 on him.
Narrating his ugly experience to GatewayMail in an exclusive interview held in Abeokuta, 21 years after the incident, the victim who is now a PhD holder, said, “When the gunmen got to my room, they asked for money, but as a poor student, I was having N25 on me, and I thought telling them I was having such ridiculous money, may annoy them, so I told them I had no money.”
Speaking further, he said that in a jiffy the gun-wielding men had dragged him into the backyard of the house, ordered him to lie face down.

Ebonhor said he could recall that one of his colleagues was also dragged in the same manner, but said that he (colleague) was able to escape the wrath of the dare-devil men.
“They were five in number, two with guns, two with cutlasses and one with iron bar with a knife. They raided four apartments, and they entered my own apartment through the back door,” he explained.

He further stressed: “When they ordered me to lie face down and pointed gun on my head, at that stage I concluded my end had come, so I pray to God to take my soul.”
Ebonhor added that the bandits thereafter shot him and immediately turned him round and plucked his two eyes with knife.

While recalling the agony he passed through during the removal of his eyes, he further explained that after the havoc, the bandits left him and as at that time he was totally blind and bleeding from the gunshot.
The victim said that he was writhing in pain for hours, adding that it was after residents realised that the bandits had left that they came to his rescue and, thereafter, rushed him to a private hospital, known as Alafia Clinic for first aid, before being transferred to Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) Sagamu, where it was confirmed that the two eyes were gone.
He narrated that the Ogun State Government, under former Military Administrator, Col. Daniel Akintonde, took up his medical responsibilities. According to him, he said he spent six months in the hospital and after recuperating he was admitted to Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo in Oyo State in 1998 to complete a course in Social Studies, majoring in Study for Visual Handicapped.
The 44-year-old blind man, who was well-determined that despite disability one can go places, thereafter enrolled at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye for a degree course. He had his first degree in Guidance and Counselling and went ahead with Master’s degree in the same course.
The highly focused Ebonhor did not stop there he proceeded further for his PhD at the same university to study Applied Psychology with Counselling as option and he indeed graduated in 2014.

He is currently working as Guidance Counsellor at Mayflower School, Ikenne, Ogun State.
The happily married man is the first handicapped to be produced by Olabisi Onabanjo University, as a blind PhD holder.  He is blessed with a beautiful wife, Mujirat, who is a Biology Teacher with Ikenne Community High School, Ikenne. The couple has a boy and a girl.
Ebonhor, who is the Secretary of the Ogun State Chapter of Joint Association of Persons with Disability (JONAPWD) said that he had forgiven his attackers, saying if he had opportunity seeing them again he would only preach Christ to them.
“I have forgiven those who plucked my eyes.  God knows everything, and what happened to a person must have reasons that are known to God,” he said.

He added: “Who knows if this doesn’t happened to me, I may not be able to attain the position I found myself today in the academic world.  I give thanks to God for everything.  If I have opportunity to meet my attacker, because I can see them with my eyes, I will only preach Christ to them on the need for them to make heaven.”
Meanwhile, Ebonhor frowned at stigmatization of the handicapped persons in the country, adding that they should not be relegated to the background.

The JONAPWD scribe stressed that no knowledge or talent should be wasted all because of one’s disability status.