One Ms. Tanya Okpala, a US-based tennis champion, who was found wandering the streets of the Awka, Anambra State capital has been rescued by the State Government.
For the past four months, Ms. Okpala, a half-caste has been living with dangerous drug gangs in the Mgbakwu community, a neighboring community, who did not recognize her.
It was not until a good samaritan, who recognized the former table tennis, and published a video of her at the popular Abakaliki street, at night, with injury, that the state government intervened.
In the said video, Ms Okpala looked distressed and unstable, prompting the quick response by the Anambra State Government to rescue, rehabilitate, and reunite her with her family.
The Anambra State Women and Social Welfare Commissioner, Ify Obinabo acting on the directive of the State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, and his wife, Mrs Nonye Soludo, immediately swung into action and rescued the woman.
Interacting with Tanya over the phone, Mrs. Soludo assured her that the state government would not forsake her and informed her that she would get the best treatment and rehabilitation to enable her to bounce back.
Mrs Soludo further assured her that the state government would ensure her full recovery and reintegration into society.
While explaining her ordeal to the first lady, Ms Okpala, who hails from Nkpologwu in Aguata local government area of the state, said she’s a US-based tennis champion but due to bad peer influence became a crack cocaine addict.
She also explained that she had the best education in and outside the country.
Ms Okpala, who said her mother was from Belarus, narrated how she lost her mother to cancer a few years ago and ever since has not been able to get over her demise.
According to the US-based tennis champion, she has a 6-year-old daughter currently staying with her father in Nkpologwu and urged the governor’s wife to help her reunite with her daughter.
