By CrossRiverWatch Admin
A Cross Riverian, John Ogah has been baptized and rechristened John Francesco Ogah by Pope Francis 1.
Mr. Ogah was among several others baptized last weekend by the Pontif and La REPUBBLICA newspaper reports that all he wanted was a dignified stay in Italy and not to be known as a hero for his exploits in September 2017 when he disarmed a supermarket thief with his bare hands.
“If Pope Francis or the president of the republic could do something for me, I would be the happiest man in the world,” he reportedly said. “I don’t want to be a hero. I just want to be legal, work and have a dignified life in Italy.”
The act of heroism occurred outside the Carrefour market in a Roman neighborhood on September 26, 2017 when Ogah, who had been begging for change outside the market confronted a masked thief, armed with a meat cleaver who tried to make off with 400 euros (USD493, NGN177,000) stolen from cashiers, and held him by the collar until the police arrived according to Italian news reports.
The moment was caught on security cameras reports FOX News.
Ogah then disappeared, fearing he would be deported because he didn’t have his papers in order. But, the Roman police sought to reward his courage and gave him a coveted Italian residency permit that had been denied him when his asylum bid failed.
He now reportedly has a job with the Italian Red Cross and a place to call home and told the La REPUBBLICA newspaper that his dream was to be a legal resident in Italy and have a job so he wouldn’t have to beg to support his child back home in Nigeria.
He is reported to have left Nigeria and, after a stay in Libya, set off for Italy on a migrant smuggler’s boat in May 2014.
In Ogah’s baptism, he chose as his baptismal name to be “Francesco.”
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