I’m confident God will avenge dad’s death –Kehinde, Oko Oloyun’s son

A trado-medical practitioner, Alhaji Fatai Yusuf, popularly known as Oko Oloyun, was on Thursday, January 23, 2020 assassinated by some gunmen. Oko Oloyun was shot dead in his vehicle along Eruwa-Igboora Road in the Ibarapa Central area of Oyo State. One of his children, Kehinde Yusuf, a Biochemistry final-year student of Babcock University, tells SIMON UTEBOR that the family has moved on

Your father was killed on January 23, 2020, how would you describe his death?

There is nothing much to talk about other than to say we miss him very much as the head of the family. God will handle what is left.

Are you frustrated that the police have not been able to find his killers more than three months after he was murdered?

What can we do? There is nothing we can do; we know this is Nigeria. This is our country. I’m not surprised at all. I just believe that God will avenge his death; God knows what we don’t know. I am not after anybody.

Do you mean you don’t have anything to say to the relevant authorities about their failure to find his killers?

As I said earlier, I have nothing to say about it. I’m not after anybody. I am just interested in looking after my younger siblings and in taking care of the family he left behind. That is my priority right now.

How many children did he leave behind?

We are 10.

Are you all from one mother?

Yes, we are all from one mother.

How did you react when you received the news of his killing?

I went home from school to pick up some things for my dissertation. I am in my final year at Babcock University. I came in on a Sunday and stayed till Wednesday. I was the one who helped him to pack his luggage. I packed his clothes and other items and put in his car.

I was planning to leave on the weekend before the incident. The incident happened on a Thursday. The news of his death hit me like a thunderstorm. I did not believe it. Do you understand that kind of situation? You bade someone goodbye today and a day after, you heard he was killed. I was shocked to my ‘bone marrow’.

How did you hear about it?

We got a call. I can’t remember the person who called us. The person told us what happened. I didn’t believe it because it was not easy to believe at first. But with the passage of time, the news started becoming real and it became viral. Then calls started coming in torrents. We started praying and we prayed for many hours till around 11pm when we came to terms that he was actually gone.

What went through your mind when it was established that he was dead?

When it dawned on me that he had been killed, I became confused. In order to control my emotion, I started to consciously relax. Still, I found it difficult to believe my father had been killed – the dad I packed his luggage and said goodbye to, only to hear that he was dead. I became moody and downcast, and that was the mood every member of the family had on that day.

How is the family coping in Oko Oloyun’s absence?

By the grace of God, things are going on fine. Everything he left behind is moving on well.

What are the things you miss about him?

We miss everything he has ever done for us. My dad always told us that he had given us the most important tool in life – education. He gave us education, but not only school education; he also imbibed in us the virtues of hard work, having high moral standards and being business-oriented.

He used to tell us regularly that the education he gave us was the most important property he would bequeath to us.

How would you describe your father with regard to the way he led his life and his relationship with his family and other people?

My father was a good man, simple. He was unassuming and philanthropic. I am confident that God will avenge his death at the appropriate time because my father was not after anybody’s life when he was alive. He was friendly and he didn’t plan evil against anyone.

What fond memories of your father would you find difficult to forget?

We will not forget him in any way. We will not forget the investment he made in us. He made sure that all his children are well educated.

Do you suspect anybody in respect of his killing?

Not at all! We don’t have anybody in mind.

Could his death be linked to any business dealing unknown to the family members?

Not at all! That is what everybody is saying. My father was not interested in any business that was not his own. He was not interested in supplanting anybody. He did his business alone.

What advice did he give you that you will always remember?

He gave us many pieces of advice that I will find difficult to forget in life. He told us that no matter what we are passing through in life, we should not be lousy, we should not be aggressive and that we should always take life easy.

He also advised us to always work hard to get whatever we need in life and that anything that is easily got is of little value. He said the things he possessed that we were looking at would have become old in our own time and that we should be industrious to acquire our own things that would meet our tastes at our own time. Also, he told us that education was the gift of life he had given us and that we should try to make use of our education to impact lives and lead a good life.

What are the legacies he left behind that you would like to sustain?

Many people know Oko Oloyun was a popular man. He left wonderful legacies that we cannot allow to go just like that. We will sustain his legacies. My brothers, sisters, mother and I are together and we meet a lot to discuss how to improve the businesses he left behind and how to make sure his legacies are sustained.

When he was alive, during holidays, we would assist him in his company and after that, we would return to school.

What were his philosophies when he was alive?

My father stood for purity. If you asked him to tell you his best colour, he would tell you white and blue. He liked to be neat and was indeed a neat man. He believed that cleanliness was next to godliness, so, he was very clean in every sense of the word and he liked people around him to also be clean.

What were his likes and dislikes?

He liked everybody, particularly honest people. He hated liars and corrupt people.

What are the things many Nigerians don’t know about him?

I can’t really say much about that but one thing that stood him out was that he was simple to a fault. He did not harbour animosity towards anybody and was a transparent man. I know the kind of comments I have received recently about him and they were always good ones.

How did he relate with his family, including extending family when he was alive?

Every year, he gave people something unique. People, particularly extended family members, usually came to his house and he entertained and took good care of them. He usually visited his parents regularly to know how they were faring and anybody that came around him always felt good and comfortable. He never fought with anybody and I never saw him argue with anybody.

As for his immediate family, he related with us nicely. He usually told us to have a determined project and that he was willing to see our projects through because he believed his role was to ensure that his children lived a purposeful life. He was ever ready to provide us good education and other good things to make us live good lives. He guided his family to have high moral standards and be religious. He told us the importance of knowing one’s God to live a good life. As a Muslim, he usually told us to learn more about Islamic faith and respect Allah – the giver of all good things all the time. He heavily supported us financially so that we wouldn’t live a life of wants and deprivations. Indeed, he did a lot for his family.

How did he bond with you and other members of the family?

While he was alive, he took us on excursion every year to places of interest within and outside the country. We visited zoos, Olumo Rock and other places in Nigeria for sightseeing and to be abreast of our culture and history, and to appreciate nature and other civilisations.

Source: PUNCH