Nollywood actor, Ibrahim Chatta, has opened up about a heartbreaking moment in his life when he lost his first child due to an inability to pay hospital bills.
In a now-viral video Chatta was seen speaking with colleagues on a movie set when he shared the emotional story.
“My first child is not Malik. The first child I had died,” he said.
According to Chatta, the child was admitted in a hospital in Lagos State, but he was unable to raise the money needed for treatment despite trekking through many parts of Lagos in a desperate attempt to find help.
“I trekked from Ijora Badia, passed through Orile, Itolo… places I used to hawk puff-puff. I went through Shitta, Lawanson, Stadium, Costain railway till I got to Makoko, yet I couldn’t get any money until the child died.
“We buried her in a crate of Coke, the olden days wooden crate of coke,” he recounted.
Chatta also spoke about the deep bond he shares with his only daughter, Awawu, whom he named after his late mother.
“When I went to Dubai and bought a diamond anklet for Awawu, her mother was upset, saying I should have bought it for her who gave birth to the child, but I told her, this is my only daughter. I had one before, but she died.
“She was buried in a wooden crate of Coke. All of them just started crying and I was cooking in the kitchen. They’d never heard the story before then,” he said.
Chatta, who currently has three children, expressed his desire to have more children.
He said, “I love all my children. God gave me three but I want to have more children. You see Awawu was named after my mother because she was born after my mother’s death. So I call her my mother. There’s nothing she wants to buy that I won’t give her.”