Lamentation of a widow: ‘They offered N500,000 for my husband’s life’

0 May, 2013 was a day the Adelekes may find impossible to forget. It was the day life was snuffed out of their breadwinner, Adeolu, by a communication mast. Now, the owner of the mast, Jubilee Life Savings and Loans, is said to have offered to pay the family N500,000, which they consider insulting.

Late Adeleke

The bungalow housing the family of late Adeolu Adeleke at Ayobo, a Lagos suburb still wears a mournful look. A desolate air hangs over it even as sympathisers and family members walk in and out wearing long look. It does not take the gift of clairvoyance to know that they are actually mourning.
Fifty two-year-old Adeleke was mowed down by a communication mast said to belong to Jubilee Life Savings and Loans, Marina, Lagos, while struggling for survival as a businessman engaged in the sales of laptops, phones batteries, re-chargeable lanterns, GSM accessories, etc.
The chief mourner, the widow and mother of his twins, Olabisi, rhetorically lamented muttering to herself as she contemplated the circumstances which led to her husband’s death and the events that followed:

Olabisi

“Is this how this life is? So my husband is gone forever? So I will never see him again? Who will take care of the children? Who? Is this how short life is short?”
And as the sea of tears roll down her chic, she stretched her legs, crossed them, uncrossed them, fluttering nervously in constant rhythm as she strived to hold back tears, while speaking with Saturday Mirror on the vacuum the late Adeleke has left in their lives.
“He was a very good man. He was a good husband to me and good father to our children. He was our hero, our breadwinner. He has seven children and had good dreams for all of them to be educated. Two of them are already in the higher institution of learning. One is presently processing his admission into the university. The one in the university, Kehinde Adeleke, came home for the burial and has been home due to financial challenges. She supposed to have gone back to school. The other four are in secondary and primary schools. Now that he is gone, who would take care of them? Who would pay their school fees? My husband’s dream for his children is dying! Who would save it? The tree on which we leaned on has fallen! Who will plant another that is so strong?” She lamented.
Asked if the owners of the mast that killed her husband footed the burial bills and have compensated the family, she responded in the negative.
“They have not given us anything yet. They did not contribute anything to bid my husband farewell to the great beyond. They wanted to come here today (May 22), but we have not seen them. They wanted to offer us 500 thousand as compensation but the family rejected it. Haba! N500,000 for our breadwinner? So the life of my husband is worth just N500,000? That is not fair to the dead at all. I know that there is no amount of money that could bring my husband back to life but his sudden death by the carelessness of the mast owners left so many burdens on the family and several responsibilities that he would have shouldered has been left hanging. What we are asking is something that can relieve the burden on us. Baba Ibeji left seven children and an aged mother whom he has been taking care of, behind. And the company should appropriately take responsibilities of their negligence. I don’t have anybody. I am looking up to God, my father to help us out but the company must do what is right.”
Also speaking, the twin son of the late Adeleke from whom he got his famous Baba Ibeji sobriquet, Taiwo, said that he was with his father the fateful day the mast snuffed life out of him.
“My late father was not just a father but also a great friend and mentor to me. He loved his children so much that he would go out to pursue his legitimate business under the sun and in the rain just to cater for their welfare. While alive, his wish was for all of us to be well educated. I have sorely missed him. I was with him that very day, helping him in his business. I am today a sad person because of the trauma of seeing my father leaving me like a joke in just a minute. I still cannot believe what happened. I wish that mast was never erected there. I wish it never rained for him to cross the road to protect the wares from the rain. I wish we never even went to the market that day. But these wishes are now completely impossible because it had happened. Part of me is gone forever,” Taiwo grieved

Adewale

Giving a chilling account of how his father met his untimely death less than a minute after they interacted, Taiwo continued: “That bad day, it was raining and he crossed over to the other side of Marina to protect the wares I was selling from the rain. He never knew that I had already done so. When he realised, he was about to cross back to where he was selling that the mask fell on him, killing him instantly. It was a sight I would not want to behold but which I did. It still plays in my head like a video. It still brings sadness to my whole system. And to think of what the company that owned the mask is saying, it frustrates me the more”.

Taiwo

Lamenting the travails of the family since the untimely demise of their father, the late Adeleke’s first son, Adewale Oluwanifemi, who is a final year Agricultural Technology student of the Lagos State Polytechnic, said that the company that owned the mast is yet to assuage the family’s pain through compensation of whatever sort.
“The owners of the mast that killed my father, Jubilee Life Savings and Loans, Marina, have been behaving very funny. If that mast had killed a highly placed individual, I don’t think that they would have been behaving this way. Since this unfortunate incident took place, they have not even paid us a condolence visit. It is really very pathetic. By tradition and convention, they are supposed to be present during the funeral services, just to show respect to my late father, but they were conspicuously absent,” he lamented.
Paying tribute to his father, Adewale said that “I remain very proud of my dad even in death. He died while toiling to fend for his children. He was a brave and hardworking man who never joked with the welfare of his family. He had been single- handedly sending us all to school with the proceeds from his business. He was the breadwinner of our family. He had an aged mother, wife and seven children to take care of. But today, he is no more. The carelessness of those governmental and private institutions who are to ensure that things work properly, monitoring all high rising buildings, communication and electrical gadgets to safe guard the lives of the citizens, has led to the untimely death of many Nigerians including my father. May he continue to rest in peace”.
Berating the burden of living without a breadwinner, Adewale said that “for the few days that we have lost our beloved father, things have been very hard. It has brought big financial burden on each and every one of us to bear. I am in school; my sister is in the university too. My younger siblings are preparing for entrance examination into the university while some are still in the secondary and primary schools. The question now is how do we survive?”
Commenting on the compensation packaged allegedly put together by Jubilee Life Savings and Loans, the owner of the killer mast, Adewale wondered: “What is N500,000 to compensate for the death of a family man whose life was cut short, leaving so many responsibilities behind? It is ridiculous. Our lawyer has been mandated to liaise with the company and negotiate tangible compensation. Within the time frame he has given them, if they did not response, we shall not hesitate to mobilise all legal arsenals to seek justice. My father was a very peaceful man and we don’t intend to make any trouble. We want to continue with his legacy of peace and love and that is why we have been taking it very calm with Jubilee Life.
“It is totally embarrassing for a company to even think of compensating the family of the bereaved with N500,000 and another N500,000 for the burial expenses. It is unacceptable,” Adeleke protested.
Continuing, he stated that: “There is no amount of money that they would pay that will bring our father back to life. However, the company should show enough responsibilities and do what is reasonably adequate.”
Corroborating the late Adeleke family’s account vis-à-vis the compensation, Barrister Ibrahim Azeez, solicitor to the family, said that Jubilee Life Savings and Loans are not sincere in their negotiations.
“We wrote several letters to Jubilee Life Savings and Loans prior to the burial of our client but they did not respond accordingly. The family demanded for one million naira to foot the burial of their late breadwinner and N20 million as compensation. However, the company offered the family only the sum of 500 thousand naira as total compensation which they turned down. We are talking about the breadwinner of a family whose life was cut short by the mast belonging to the said company. Unfortunately, the company did not participate in the burial of the late Adeolu Adeleke and the family, in their pain and travail, had to foot the bill. We have given them 14 days ultimatum to meet the demand of the family or face legal action. As I am talking to you now, they have proposed to offer N500,000 to cover the burial expenses of the late Adeleke and another N500,000 as compensation. I will meet with the family and will act according to the decisions that would be taken thereafter,” Azeez said.
When Saturday Mirror visited the Marina office of the alleged owners of the killer mast, Jubilee Life Savings, all efforts to speak with the management was unsuccessful as the security man at the main office reception, after moving from one partitioned office to another, claimed that the competent personnel to speak on the issue was not around.
Also, Saturday Mirror’s request to have the GSM number of the said personnel and speak with him on phone was turned down by the security on duty who said that he was not in the position to do so while insisting that he did not want to break protocol.
The reporter’s GSM number was however left with the company but they did not call as at the time of filing in this report.
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