Gospel was fortunate to flee from the war ravaged nation. But the road to Italy was equally littered with dangers. After the dangerous sea voyage on rickety boat, Gospel finally made it to Italy in November 2016. He settled in the Sicilian city of Catania where he applied for asylum.
Gospel soon realise that one viable road to success was through education. He moved up north to the city of Parma and immediately enrolled into the Italian language programme. In June 2017 he obtained the necessary certification for the Italian language – level B1 under the auspices of the inclusion and integration of refugee project.
At the University of Parma where Gospel was admitted to read Computer Science, “I was able to attend the university course in Computer Science and at the same time Italian language lessons that enabled me to understand the teachings well,” noted the Nigerian.
Gospel was among graduating students in post COVID 19 lockdown in Italy. “Today I feel only joy, I am very happy, it has been a very important path for my life. I cannot fully express my feelings. I have always tried to study in these three years to get to this path, a path that winds through Nigeria, Libya and Italy. The risks, the dangers, the prison. I have hope which is based on the will to live, the one from my experience, from that terrible journey. There were many dangers, but I can’t tell them. I don’t want to,” Gospel stated.
Odogwu on his part was arrested this week in the parking lot of a supermarket in Reggio Emilia while handing seven grams of cocaine to an Italian. When he was searched the sum of €280, proceeds from the sale he just made was found on him. During a search in his home, another seven grams of cocaine was found, already divided into six wraps, and the sum of €2,430 in cash, a blender with traces of white powder, a precision sling bar, material for cutting and packaging the drug doses. Odogwu with a police record is to be charged to court.
