Inspiring story of a Nigerian police
officer, Edward Eze Onoriode, who returned a woman's purse with ATM cards
containing N200m and valuables worth N1.8 million. Read the amazing story as
shared by him on his Facebook wall below...
"I was at Ikeja shopping mall
two days ago on duty where I recovered a missing purse at the parking lot. The
purse contained; some cash both local and foreign currencies, recharge cards
worth about N2000, nine ATM cards, complementary cards, valuable documents,
international passport, international and local drivers license, national ID
card, voters card and a gold necklace.
I took the missing purse to the
security office where all lost but found items are being kept for the owners to
claim should in case the owners lodge a formal complaint that their items at
the mall went missing for possibly claim after identification. At the security
office where we went through all the items inside the purse for record purpose,
one of the security men told me point blank that if he's the one that recovered
the missing purse, he'd remove the money, gold necklace and recharge card
before bringing the purse to the office for record purpose.
I wasn't disappointed with his misguided
speech because that's the normal character of most Nigerians when they recover
a missing item. Somehow, I decide to trace the owner of the purse via her
complimentary card and put a call across to her.
Upon receiving the call, she screamed at the
background jubilating that her missing purse has been recovered. She drove
straight to the mall, tracing me through my mobile number I used in calling
her. When we met, she didn't mind we were in public, she gave me a warm hug and
thanked me and prayed for me. I took her to the office where the purse was
kept. She checked her purse and discovered that nothing was missing. She was
astonished. She asked me again if I was the one that saw the item and I said
yes. She told me that she was already in the bank filling forms to block her
ATM cards. She said in those ATM cards, she have over N200m in there and the
necklace in the purse is valued at N1.8m. She also said, I just removed a heavy
burden from her neck because life would have been miserable for her missing her
international passport, international and local drivers licence including other
documents. She kept thanking me and almost knelling down.
She was awed and she told me that
she least expected a Police officer to recover a missing item containing cash
and still return that missing item intact without removing a dime out of it
mostly in this harsh economy. She kept staring at me like am a God.
To cut the long story short, she
gave me some cash which I rejected. I told her am doing my job and taking money
from her for recovering her missing purse is wrong on my part. I also made her
to understand that we can become friends and maybe in the future she can
appreciate my nice gesture to her but I won't take anything from her for doing
my job at the moment.
She became speechless and asked me which
church am i attending? I smiled and told her "am irreligious. In fact, am
a freethinker" that's the exact words I told her. She stood their for
minutes without knowing the next word to say. Anyway, we are now friends and
she just introduced me to her husband this morning on phone. Her husband was so
excited and has invited me and my family to join them on a dinner in any of my
off days. Is good to do the right thing not because of any reward that comes
with it but because its the right thing to do. Good morning. “
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