Just like the biblical allusion “When the lord turned again the captivity of Zion; they were like them that dream. Then their mouth fill with laughter and their tongue with singing” so is the story of Mr. Victor Ijamakinwa Bello [popularly known as Ayinto], of 59, Oke-Ogun Street, Owo local government area of Ondo State, who has been insane for not less than 25 years.
To members of Ijamakinwa’s family and the people who knew him very well in the community, it appeared like a dream when they saw him penultimate Thursday when he led Pastor Emmanuel Okonkwo, the assistant resident Pastor of Living Faith Church [Winners’ Chapel] of No. 71, Oke-Ogun Street, Owo to his father;s house shortly after he was healed miraculously that day.
His elder sister, Mrs. Dorcas Adebisi, who confirmed the story, said Ijamakinwa is one of the three sons in the family of five children of their late parents, Mr. Ijamakinwa Bello and Mrs. Solape Bello, saying that the madness started when he was in Lagos and was later brought back to Owo, his home town for spiritual illness.
She pointed out that all the efforts of her mother to ensure that he was cured of the mental illness was to no avail, adding that he had been taken to several churches and other spiritual places to ensure that he got well before their mother died nine years ago.
Mrs. Adebisi disclosed that Ijamakinwa had earlier married a lady from Owo who gave birth to a son named Mukaila Bello over 27 years ago, about two years before he ran mad.
He elder sister who is a member of a gospel church said she had not stopped praying church said she had not stopped praying for his healing, saying that hope was already lost before God miraculously intervened.
It was gathered that Victor Ijamakinwa Bello had a track record of academic excellence at Methodist Grammar School and Imade College both in Owo local Government before he proceeded to Lagos to engage in business.
While narrating how the mad man was cured to reporters in Owo, Pastor Emmanuel said he had closed in the office for that day when he saw him [Victor] looking at him with rapt attention.
In his words, “It was on 18th August, this year at about 6pm when I closed from office. I got outside and I saw the man. He was looking at me with rapt attention. I saw moved in my spirit and I said to him, “Come here in the name of Jesus” and he was shaking. When he came to me, I prayed for him and after that I asked him his name, he answered me and I asked him where his house is and he took me to the house.
“When we got to the house, I asked the people living in the house whether they know him and they said he is a son of the man that owned the house. I took him back to the church where he had lived for three days before I decided to take him to my house.
“He stayed with me for a week so that he could have someone to interact with. He was not violent again and he never asked for cigarette or Indian hemp. He remained calm for the period of time he stayed with me.
“I made him feel at home. We lived together like brothers because in his last 25 years he had been isolated. The Sunday after his deliverance, he worshiped with us in the first and second services in the church.
“I thought of where he can be to get interaction because I don’t want to release him to his family for now. I decided to take away from Owo vicinity where they know him to have been a mad man for more than 25 years and I decided to take him to the rehabilitation unit of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency [NDLEA] in Akure so that he can start a new life entirely”.
Pastor Emmanuel pointed out that the spiritual aspect had been taken care of by God, saying that Ijamakinwa needed to take food supplements so that he could regain his memory fully and that he could be rehabilitated completely as he would have people to chat with.
When “Daily Post” visited Mr. Ijamakinwa at the rehabilitation unit of NDLEA in Akure, he had started interacting with people normally.
He even wrote his name correctly in book given to him.
In his response to the miraculous healing of his father, Mukalia, his son, who was said to have abandoned him for the past 25 years, returned home to his father as he also expressed joy for his father’s healing.
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