By Dickson Omobola
More than two weeks after the Olu of Onibuku in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government of Ogun State, Oba Abraham Olusegun Bankole, died in a road accident, grief was still pervasive in his palace when Sunday Vanguard visited yesterday.
The widow, Olori Abimbola Bankole, said she lost her most treasured asset with the death of her husband.
The bereaved woman, who said the family had been receiving visitors from far and near to condole with them over the death, lamented that there had been no visits by state government officials and the area’s representatives in parliament, especially Senator Solomon Adeola (Yayi) and the House of Representatives member.
Sunday Vanguard recalls that Oba Bankole died on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 when he was crushed by a truck after the truck hit the tricycle he was riding in and the impact threw him out of the vehicle. The incident happened around Winners Chapel on Ota-Idiroko Road.
There had been conflicting accounts about why, despite his high-profile status, he chose to ride a commercial tricycle.
An account said the monarch was trying to avoid the hike in the price of petrol by keeping his cars at home and instead riding in a commercial tricycle.
Olori Abimbola faulted the account, saying the issue of trying to conserve petrol money did not arise as it was circumstances that prevented her deceased husband from riding in one of his two cars during the ill-fated outing.
According to her, the late monarch planned to make the outing with his car, but his driver who was to take him was disappointed.
The queen’s words: “He had an appointment with his eye specialist who had threatened to close if he did not get to Iyana-Iyesi where his office is located before closing time.
“But because his driver who would have driven him to the eye specialist was not immediately available, he chose to go in a commercial vehicle. The plan was that the driver would subsequently meet him there and bring him back home. So the story that he was trying to run away from buying exorbitant petrol to fuel his car isn’t correct. He had two cars and he could have conveniently rode in one of them”.Lamenting the death, Olori Abimbola said the death came as a shock.
“If he had been critically ill and we had no hope that he will survive, that would have been understood. But for a person who left home hale and hearty and you hear that he was dead, that was too much of a shock,” she said.
The bereaved queen added that her husband was buried as a “good Christian that he was,” thanking all those who came to condole with the family.
Source: Vanguard
