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By Amos Okioma, Yenagoa
A para-powerlifting coach, Mr. Fatabiri Gbassa, has made a passionate appeal to government, sports authorities and Nigerians to save him from a yet to be diagnosed ailment.
Mr. Gbassa who is a coach with the Bayelsa State Council has been bedridden for over two years now and need urgent assistance to get treatment.
According to sources, these are really trying moments for Coach Fatabiri Gbassa and his family.
The 2009 National Institute of Sports, Lagos trained coach is at the moment bedridden, unable to walk since 2018.
Having been involved in a ghastly motor accident some years back which resulted in one of his legs being amputated, the father of five was in tears and could barely talk when our reporter visited his house off the Sani Abacha Expressway in the Amarata area of Yenagoa, but was able to mumble few words, crying for help.
“E don tay when I no fit waka again. I no fit remember again. Make this sickness go. I don suffer too much. Wetin I want now na treatment, abeg make una help me,” he cried.
His wife, Mrs. Victoria Gbassa, who has to sell periwinkle to take care of him and the children, appealed for support from government and Nigerians.
“As you can see, he needs urgent medical attention. Going to the hospital requires lots of money and for now I don’t have that kind of money. He has not been able to walk for about 4 to 5 years now. Initially, he could walk, once you give him the wheelchair he could stand by himself and sit. But at a point in time, he couldn’t even stand up from the bed again, especially since we moved into this house over two years ago.
“I am now in one debt or the other. I have five children, only one of them is in the polytechnic, the other wrote JAMB and passed very well, got admission at the university but I couldn’t afford to train both of them at the same time so she has to step back. She still took JAMB again this year while the other is in secondary School. So I don’t know. I just need help. I appeal to government and well-meaning Nigerians to help us. I just hope God will do something,” she pleaded as tears rolled down her eyes.
Ada Gwegwe, a former Bayelsa United, Ocean Boys and George Turnah FC coach and course mate of Mr. Gbassa at the NIS in 2009 joined the call for support for the ailing trainer.
“I first met Coach Gbassa at the National Institute of Sports in 2009 when we went for a course. The way he was doing I knew he was a Bayelsan. So I moved close to him and we became friends and close. I saw him on clutches then and I asked him what happened. He narrated his story of how he was involved in accident and it resulted in one of his legs being amputated. But because of the passion and love he has for sports, he decided not to give up and just about a week ago, my colleagues in Lagos informed me of his condition and I had to trace him to his house.
“What I saw was terrible. I want to use this opportunity to call on the government, the Ministry of Sports, Bayelsa State Sports Council and Nigerians to do something about it. This man has five children and it would not be okay to just watch him helpless like that. He needs medical attention urgently. In any way people could assist, let them help him please,” he appealed.
Children of the ailing coach Fatabiri Gbassa appealed to Nigerians help their father get back on his feet.
