By Deji Ayo Jones
The Anambra State government has rescued a former US-based tennis champion, Ms. Tania Ijeoma Okpala, who was found wandering the streets of Awka, the state capital.
Okpala who was over the weekend captured in a viral video on social media by a good spirited member of the public appeared distressed and unstable.
The said video reportedly prompted the Anambra State Government to rehabilitate Tania with the aim of reuniting her with her family.
Tania as a Tennis player
Women Affairs Commissioner, Ify Obinabo said the ministry swung into action after receiving a directive from Governor Chukwuma Soludo and the wife.
Women Affairs Commissioner, Ify Obinabo said the ministry swung into action after receiving a directive from Governor Chukwuma Soludo and the wife.
A statement on the ministry’s social media page said, while interacting with Tania over the phone, Mrs Soludo assured her that the state government will give the distressed lady the best treatment and rehabilitation to enable her bounce back.
Tania who hails from Nkpologwu in Aguata Local Government Area area of the state said she’ was a US-based tennis champion but due to bad peer influence became a crack cocaine addict.
In an earlier interview, Tania recalled that, in 1999, she got a scholarship to study at Howard University in the United States where she emerged champion in lawn tennis. Everything, according to her, was rosy until her mother, a structural engineer working for a construction company, died of breast cancer in 2017.
She said, two years later, things got worse as she lost her job in a hotel and subsequently became pregnant for her Liberian boyfriend.
The former US-based tennis champion has a 6-year-old daughter currently staying with her father in Nkpologwu Community in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State.
She urged the governor’s wife to help her reunite with her daughter.
*Additional reports and pictures from Agency sources