Lagos Amputee Hawker Reveals Why She Lied About Her Father’s Death
Mary Daniel, a 27-year-old amputee hawker, has apologized for deceiving sympathetic Nigerians by saying her father was late.
After pictures of her hawking sachet water in the thick traffic of Lagos went viral online, Ms Daniel collected huge donations from Nigerians, amounting to N25 million.
Things went wrong for her when the Lagos State Government found inconsistencies in her background documents, which she had previously shared.
Ms Daniel appeared to be an orphan with a baby to look after, which elicited more sympathy from donors.
After she was exposed for lying, the Lagos State Government barred her from receiving the cash gift that had been generously donated by Nigerians.
Ms Daniel begged for forgiveness from those who sympathized and helped her in an interview on Thursday. She clarified that she declared her father dead because of his incompetence as a father following her accident.
“I implore Nigerians to forgive me. People who spend their time on the streets and in noisy places rarely have a clear mind, and I explained that my father was late so that Nigerians could assist me. “I made a huge blunder; Nigerians, please forgive me,” she begged.
“Since I was in this accident, my father has left me; there was no one to look after me, nothing! That’s why I said he was no longer alive. My mother, on the other hand, is no longer alive. She said, “I had an accident; I was not amputated from birth.”
Sani Yakubu Ejima, the leader of the Igala tribe in Lagos, denied that she had been arrested, claiming that she had been handed over to a committee that worked with the Irede Foundation to help Ms Daniel start a company.
They formed a committee to handle the situation. I’m on that committee, and Mary will be founded with the help of the Irede Foundation and others. They asked her to come up with a business idea, and they decided that once Mary figures out what she wants to do, they would set her up. So Mary stated her desire to run a supermarket, and after that, they handed her over to me, and I took her home,” he explained.
