* Mrs Mary Oballa
In this day and age when vices and shortage of integrity seem to be the norm, anyone that practically demonstrates such rare virtues ought to be encouraged and commended.
It is in this light that the rare virtue exhibited by Mrs Mary Oballa, who found an Android smart phone at a bus stop and chose to keep and handed same to the owner 24 four hours after, deserves commendation and a worthy example to emulate.
An aviation journalist, Isaac Ayodele, of the Nation newspaper, lost his phone at the Beessam Bus/ Stop between the domestic and international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos at about 8pm.
The incident happened on Saturday, November 25, 2017.
Exasperated Ayodele made a frantic call to establish if there was any prospect of finding the phone or to start saving for replacement, got a rude shock when somebody picked the call.
The respondent to the call identified himself as Mr. Victor Ameh Oballa, and explained his wife found the phone at the bus stop. He graciously tell the owner of the phone he could come over to his office with convincing evidence to pick his phone.
Yet the phone owner, Ayodele could not believe his ears as he went to bed wondering what other joker the respondent could likely cook up to deny him of his phone.
But Ayodele was surprised and overwhelmed when he arrived the office of the husband to the woman, who found the phone and discovered Mr. Victor Ameh Oballa, is the Provost Marshall, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Lagos State Command.
After exchanging very brief pleasantry, Mr. Victor Ameh Oballa, now the host, had a brief chat with Ayodele and handed him the lost but found phone.
The Provost Marshal recounted that, Ayodele’s incident was the third time his wife would be returning lost but found phones to their owners. Victor Ameh Oballa mentioned an occasion when his wife, Mrs Mary Oballa found N500, 000 {Five hundred thousand naira only} during motor accident where many people died in Enugu state.
He said his wife handed the money to operatives of the Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC).
He mentioned another occasion a customer who travelled from outside Lagos state for shopping in his wife shop forgot large sums of money but she kept the money. When the owner of the money returned the third day to enquire if she actually forgot the money in her shop? Mary Oballa brought out the money untouched and in exact denomination.
Mrs. Mary Oballa who attended ECWA Goodnews Church, Mopol 123 Barracks, said she was trained by her parents not to take what does not belong to her. She vowed nothing will ever entice her to take what does not belong to her.
She cited the scriptures saying that, “It is God that makes riches for his honest servant and will not add so much toil to it.”
What a good example for our leaders in public office to emulate. To at all times earn the confidence of the masses that they are not in office for spoil of office but for service to humanity and wait for reward that almighty God himself gives.
