Dr. Betta Edu (L) and Eno Essien the cancer patient
It was a stroke of luck on Saturday December 23 for a 50-year-old abandoned Eno Asuquo Essien who is battling with suspected chronic cancer of the breast for over three years.
Daily she sits down by the roadside at Ekorinim by First Bank near the Murtala Mohammed highway in Calabar begging for help.
Fortune smiled her way as she caught the attention of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Dr Betta Edu who had just come into town that afternoon for the Obong of Calabar’s event.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Minister, Rasheed Olanrewaju Zubair, said, the woman, a poor food vendor who has sold all she has to treat her breast cancer in tears couldn’t believe a Minister would stop by to pick her up for treatment.
In her characteristic manner of quietly showing empathy and love for the vulnerable, the Minister was overcome with emotions when she picked up Essien from the Ekorinim area of the Cross River State capital for full rehabilitation, medications, and humanitarian assistance.
Eno Essien (R) and her sister, full of praises for Dr Betta Edu
Eno who has been abandoned by her family, lives in Calabar and has been battling the deadly disease for more than three years now with no financial capacity for medical attention could not hold her gratitude as she went down in tears full of praises for Edu.
The ailing woman who could not contain her joy told the Minister, “God specially sent you to me during this season to save my life, I thank Jesus, I thank you and I thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who appointed you into this office. You are a humble kind woman.
“You are proper and fit for the kind of humanitarian response Nigerians need and I am today a bona fide beneficiary of this, I will shout for the people to hear “
Also speaking, a foremost human rights lawyer, Barr. James Ibor, who called her attention and saw the Minister’s immediate intervention described her as “Humanitarian per Excellence.”
“I know Dr. Betta and her humanitarian antecedents before now but what I saw her doing today was life-saving, timely and immediate response during the festive period, it’s commendable”, Ibor said.
The Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Minister who refused to speak much on the development simply said: “God will Save Eno Asuquo Essien’s life from this deadly state I met her”.
