An 83 year-old retired soldier, Pa Sule Yusuf, who has been sleeping under the bridge for 17 years in Lagos, has rejected the offer of relocation to his country home, Igboora in Oyo State.
The Igboora Progress Union, the umbrella association of Igboora indigenes, revealed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Tuesday.
NAN reports that the news of Yusuf’s 17 years sojourn under the bridge was widely reported in the media on January 6, which necessitated the intervention of his community.
Yusuf was said to have been sleeping under the Oshodi Bridge in Lagos since 1999 after he allegedly lost contact with his family.
He claimed to have retired from the Nigerian Army and lost contact with his wife and children, but decided to stay in Lagos.
The man was reported to have been spared several times during constant raid of the area by policemen due to his identity as a retired soldier.
Akinyemi Akinlabi, who spoke on behalf of IPU, told NAN that the news was “shocking and pathetic”.
Akinlabi, a former Caretaker Chairman of Ibarapa Central Local Government Area, said that the IPU, under the leadership of Justice John Ige (rtd), swung into action after reading the publication.
Akinlabi said the union promptly directed two of their members, Wole Ogunsola and Muyideen Salami, to visit the man and which they did at exactly 11am same day the news was published.
Ogunsola and Salami confirmed to NAN that Yusuf told them he was from Ile-Ekerin, Isale-Oba in Igboora, the same compound from where Ogunsola hails.
Akinlabi said the union had met with the family of Yusuf to find solution to the problem.
When NAN contacted the family members, they said the man was not abandoned by the family, but had from childhood cultivated the attitude of living under the bridge.
A member of the family who sought anonymity said: “Yusuf has a room and parlour in his family house in Igboora, which he locks up and uses anytime he comes to Igboora.
“He was in Igboora two years ago for the burial of his elder sister.
“He has declined several attempts to relocate him to Ejigbo by his younger sister, Amudat, who lives in Ejigbo.”
When also contacted, Amudat said she visited him regularly at Oshodi and also took him to Ago-Iwoye to remove cataract from his eyes less than two years ago.
Meanwhile, the IPU has commended the media for unravelling the ordeal of the old man, which necessitated the union’s actions.
The union promised it would do everything humanly possible to relocate the man to Igboora.
NAN.
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