What‘s the worth of four fingers of a person? While opinion may differ on this, in Adebusoye Temitope‘s case, they are not valued above the sum of N1m.
With a letter that reads, ”I, Mr. Prakash Jaindani on behalf of Sun and Sand Industries Ltd., handed over to Miss Adebusoye a bank cheque no 000007158 valued at N1m. This is the final settlement made to the injured workman in the course of working with the company and that the payment was made and collected voluntarily. Adebusoye could no longer work for the company or lay claim to any other medical bill.”
That was the end of the battle that the 21-year-old fought to regain the use of her fingers, even if they were artificial.
When she went to work on November 25, 2009, at Sun and Sand Industries Ltd., Ota, Ogun State, little did she know that she was not going to return home with her fingers intact. Adebusoye, the first child in a family of six, was trying to remove some aluminium products from a machine at work when her right hand got stuck in it. She removed the aluminium but had four of her fingers go with it.
It was not as if Adebusoye, a native of Ode-Erinje, Okitipupa Local Government, Ondo State, set out to be a casual worker. She had dreams of becoming a journalist until fate struck her some deadly blows.
It started with the death of her mother on January 8, 2008, while giving birth to a child. Another issue is that of the grinding poverty that has been the lot of the family. The burden of the family‘s responsibilities was becoming too much to bear for her factory worker father, so she decided to help out by getting a job.
Her joy knew no bounds when Sun and Sand Industries employed her as a casual worker with a salary of N13,000 per month 11 months ago. It was meagre, she knew; but it would help her family a bit, she concluded. With the dream of being a journalist sill steadfast in her mind, she faced her job, knowing that it was a temporary situation. But on November 25, she got more than she bargained for.
Only Adebusoye, who finished her secondary school education in 2007, can describe the pain. She says, ”I thought I was going to die. Initially, I just saw blood coming out of the machine and my right hand was numb. Then after a few seconds, I felt this pain in my right hand; I was just screaming. Then I passed out.”
She woke up at Medicare Hospital, Sango-Ota. She says, ”When I woke up a few hours later and I saw that I had only one finger on my right hand, tears were just flowing out of my eyes. I could not cry out loud because, apart from the pain I was going through, my heart was very heavy; I was just sobbing.”
When SUNDAY PUNCH first published the young lady‘s story on January 3, 2010 and also on February 14, 2010, her father complained that the management of the company did not ask after his daughter‘s health. He says, ”The company has neither bothered to meet with us nor discuss how to compensate my daughter. Nobody from the company has made an effort to locate our family.
“They just dumped her in the hospital and we have not heard anything from them. This is very pathetic, because she lost her fingers on the company‘s premises when she was working for them. Is the company trying to say that the only thing they will be responsible for is her medical bill? What happens to my daughter‘s future? Now that she is in a permanent state of disability, the future is not very bright.”
A member of staff of Sun and Sand, Mr. Joseph Soyombo, denied the allegations levelled against the company. When our correspondent could not communicate with the Managing Director, Mrs. Tiyer, an Indian, because of language barrier, Soyombo, who works in the human resources department, says, ”What happened to the young lady was an industrial accident. When it happened, we took her to the hospital because we did not want to leave the matter to the contractor who hired her. We decided to take her to our company hospital because the contractor may not be able to take good care of her or he may take her to a sub-standard hospital.
“She has been in our hospital since the day the incident occurred. We are willing to support and compensate her, but we are yet to see her family. None of them has come to this company since the lady had the accident. We don‘t know them. We are a responsible organisation and it won‘t be proper for us to abandon her. We will do the normal thing by compensating her; but who do we talk to? We have not seen any member of her family.”
After the January 3 publication, prominent lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, took interest in Adebusoye‘s case and took up the matter. In a letter to the MD of the company dated January 12, Falana, demanded N20m as compensation. The letter was also copied to the Minister of Labour and Productivity.
When SUNDAY PUNCH called Soyombo to find out why the company did not respond to the letter, he said he was not competent to talk about the matter. ”Talk to our MD. I am not competent to talk about it,” he said. The MD did not pick her calls. Then Soyombo said, ”I will call you back later. I have your number.”
Finally, the sum of N1m was given to the young lady as the overall compensation.
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