The Lagos state government has withheld the N25m it initially planned as gift to Mary Daniel, the Oshodi amputee hawker whose story touched Nigerians and other global citizens recently.
A multimedia report by the Punch went viral as the 27-year-old tearfully unspooled her story, leaving out gaps the newspaper could have explored in the quest for truth. (It was not even impossible the reporter was tipped off by Daniel’s handlers.)
But the well humanized report turned sensational, as expected of a well put-up job, and Nigerians kicked in N25m into her bank account within days.
Her state-sponsored birthday that followed also became splashy, as organisations supplied her expensive clothes to preen her up, and Gov Babjide Sanwo-Olu announced a N25-million gift to boot.
Following a series of threatening calls she received from her handlers who wanted their own slices of the rakings, the state government had to have a deeper look, and, in the process, invited some ‘elders’ from Kogi where she said has a grandma nursing her baby.
So the gaps the media reports ignored became obvious days ago, before her planned return to her home state.
It turns out Daniel’s dad is still alive, contrary to the sob story she yarned earlier—that both parents died in an auto crash.
Again, according to Lagos CP Hakeem Odumosu, her leg was amputated at birth, though she lied it was sawn off at 10, to save her life after the auto crash she was the only survival.
With her cover blown open, the state government, which took custody of her after the report, has handed her over to state social welfare department, Odumosu explained.
While the state government can withhold its N25m, Daniel, with her crookedness, could still walk away with the same amount good Samaritans donated.