Cayo woman wins second highest Lotto jackpot

She’s employed as secretary to the policy analyst in the Ministry of Agriculture, but this afternoon Nigna Andrews, known to most of her friends as Mimiom, collected big–not her retirement benefits, but one of the largest payouts in Belize’s lotto history. On Wednesday night the jackpot stood at a tidy one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars and when the numbers 3-12-14-15-17 came out of the machine, Andrews, a resident of Santa Elena, Cayo, became the nation’s latest lotto winner. Andrews told News 5’s Patrick Jones that when she realized she had won, she immediately took two days emergency leave and this afternoon came to Belize City to collect her winnings.

Nigna Andrews, $135,000 Lotto Winner

?I definitely will invest it in my children?s education. And I have a few faithful family and friends that I?m going to share my blessings with.?

Patrick Jones

?You call it blessing, when did you learn that you got this blessing??

Nigna Andrews

?When I went to work the morning one of my co-workers asked me if I hear the numbers that played and that somebody won it. And then he said the numbers sound like mine. So I went and I start looking in my bag, I checked in the car, but unfortunately I did not take it to work with me that morning or else I would have been here from yesterday.?

Patrick Jones

?Were you surprised that you won this big jackpot??

Nigna Andrews

?Well I couldn?t believe it. I couldn?t because I normally but the lotto every lotto drawing and I keep on saying to myself one day I must win this thing, I must win it and here I am today.?

After income tax, which amounted to twenty thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars, Andrews took home one hundred and fourteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars. She is scheduled to return to work on Monday.