Posted by By Bankong Obi on
For allegedly selling his father's land, an 87-year-old man, Pa Francesco Branco, has incurred the wrath of his children and other family members. He has been abandoned.
For allegedly selling his father's land, an 87-year-old man, Pa Francesco Branco, has incurred the wrath of his children and other family members. He has been abandoned.
P.M.News learnt that the man's children had high hopes of inheriting the property which belonged to their grandfather, only for their father to sell it without their knowledge.
This action was also said to have caused a rift between Pa Branco's children and their extended family who thought the children connived with their father to sell the family's heritage.
The abandoned old man, a member of the popular Branco family, in Lagos, has been taking refuge at the Regina Mundi Home for the Aged, Mushin, Lagos, for the past four years.
P.M.News further learnt that none of the family members has been to the home to see the octogenarian who now cuts a pitiable sight among his colleagues at the facility.
Confirming P.M.News' findings, Reverend Sister Anthonia Babalola, Superior-General of the home, said Pa Branco's case is unique and pathetic. 'The old man's children and other relations neither come to visit their father nor care to find out how he is faring,' she said. She explained that the children should have considered their father's poor health and frailty, on account of his old age.
According to Sister Babalola, efforts by some priests in the country and in America (where the children reside) to reconcile them with their father, have proved abortive. Also lamenting the growing rate of old people abandoned in the country, the Superior General blamed poverty, unemployment and lack of patience by relatives, for the situation. She added that the problem portends a bleak future for the extended family system.
The care giver also lamented the problems faced by the home, especially lack of facilities to accommodate more inmates, and called on the government to come to their aid.