Bayelsa PMAN Holds Peaceful Rally to Raise Fund for Ailing Member

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

Members of the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) yesterday held a peaceful rally in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, to raise fund for one of their ailing member.

The member, known as Wednesday Timi Tonkumo, aka Lemon Black, has been suffering from end stage renal disease (kidney failure) and need a kidney transplant.

According to doctor’s report, Tonkumo needed N20 million for a new kidney transplant and he is surviving right now with three rounds of dialysis each week at the cost of N70,000) per round; a financial burden too heavy for his immediate family to bear.

The scan showed that both kidneys have reduced in size.

In an appeal for support from the Federal Medical Center, Yenagoa, for the 37 years old musician and a civil servant, the hospital agreed that the medical bill, which amounted to $40,000 would be too much for an individual to pay alone.

“This is to affirm that the above named patient of this hospital is suffering from end stage renal disease. Survival is dependent on lifelong maintenance dialysis or kidney transplant.

“Both modalities of treatment are very expensive and not within the reach of the average patient,” the report reads.

Speaking at the rally, which took the PMAN members to the State House of Assembly and the Government House in Onopa, the Governor of the PMAN, Mr. Peres Ogbogbo, said the campaign was to appeal to the government, individual and corporate bodies to help save the victim.

Ogbogbo said the young man was too young and talented to die now and appealed to the state government and to the members of the State House of Assembly to come to the aid of the victim.

He said: “We are passionately appealing to the civil society, the government and every meaningful individual to come to the aid of their own by footing the bills for the desperately needed transplant of Lemon Black.”