Nigerian Paralympics gold medalist Ndidi Nwosu dies of lung infection

Ace Nigerian powerlifter and Paralympics gold medalist, Ndidi Nwosu, is dead.

Former President of the Nigeria Powerlifting Federation, Queen Uboh confirmed the death of the athlete who was a gold medalist at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio De Janeiro.

Ndidi who also won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, died in Owerri Imo state on March 1, 2020, following complications arising from a lung infection.

Ms Uboh disclosed that the husband of the late powerlifter, Ikechukwu Nwosu called her to convey the sad news of his wife’s demise.

She said;

“Ndidi sustained an injury from the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia. She was a heavyweight powerlifter. I had actually assisted by paying for two of the surgeries she had in Owerri but after the surgery, she was never the same again.

“She had been off and on in the hospital and that was why she couldn’t take part in this last World Cup.

“Even before she died, she appeared to me in the dream. She told me not to leave her family and that I was still her mummy despite not being the Powerlifting President anymore. So when the husband called me to inform me of her passing, I knew already because she had appeared to me in the dream.

“I sent some money to Nwosu to start a petty business but she couldn’t manage it with her poor health.

“She had called me to say she couldn’t sustain the business because she couldn’t move about anymore and moreover, she was using the money to buy drugs.

“She was a very quiet powerlifter and that’s why many people really didn’t know her. Ndidi became a professional powerlifter in 2008 and won gold in the Rio Paralympic Games in 2016 and also at the 2018 Commonwealth Games It was at the Commonwealth Games that she sustained an injury which affected her spine.”

In a tribute to late Ndidi, the Minister of Youths and Sports Sunday Dare praised the podium performances of the powerlifter “which etched and ranked the name of her fatherland- Nigeria- amongst the countries parading great para powerlifters on the international scene.”