Remi Aye at the Trauma Centre, Ondo on Monday
By Banji Ayoola
Mr Remi Aye, the former Ondo State Government House Photographer for The Hope newspapers, is in a critical condition. His wife, Janet, and son, Ayo, spoke on telephone on Monday evening from the Trauma Centre, Ondo, where he is hospitalised.
The wife said that Aye, who has been recovering from a partial stroke he suffered in 2015, fell at his home yesterday, suffering a head injury, which resulted into bleeding, and has been in a critical state since then.
As recounted by the wife and corroborated by the son, Aye has been unconscious since the fall. He has not opened his eyes ever since. He has just been breathing.
She appealed to the State Government and kind members of the public with means to help her husband in his critical hour of need. “Please don’t let my husband die; please help us”, she appealed.
The ailing photo journalist has been appealing for the payment of his gratuity since retiring from the services of the State Government in 2018 without any success.
Aye who was also a former Head Photographer of the newspaper, who covered the State House for The Hope in his active years, had been bed-ridden since 2015 while in active service, a situation which worsened since his retirement in 2018.
He had been battling what doctors called partial stroke since 2015 on his return from Kabba, Kogi State, as a member of the media crew in the convoy of the immediate past Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who had gone to boost the second term reelection campaign of his then Peoples Democratic Party colleague, the then Governor Idris Wada.
“By the time I got to Akure, I started feeling weak. I went straight to a pharmacy on Oda Road, opposite School of Health Technology. They conducted a test on me and said that my blood pressure had risen. They sold drugs costing N2, 500 for me. On getting home, I took those drugs. At about 12 midnight, I could not lift my hands and legs; and my tongue had twisted. That was all,” Aye recalled.
He was taken to the State Specialist Hospital in Akure, from where he was referred to the Trauma Centre, Ondo. Government paid the bills. That was in 2015. He has been bed-ridden ever since.
Aye can be reached on 0813 953 1762 / 09059870860
