My brother was not assassinated – Doctor’s sister

Irawo:Ojia in pink

Ojia, the only surviving sister of the 27-year-old medical doctor, Irawo Adamolekun, who was shot dead in traffic at the Anthony Village end of Ikorodu Road, Lagos, last Friday said her brother was not assassinated.

Ojia spoke to our correspondent outside Our Saviour’s Church, Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos on Thursday  where a funeral service was held for the deceased.

Ojia, also a medical doctor, said the man who pulled the trigger and killed her younger brother must have been one of the many frustrated young Nigerian youths.

She blamed Irawo’s death on the failure of government at all levels to provide enabling opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.

She said, “My brother was not assassinated, I repeat, my brother was not assassinated. He was murdered because the country failed the individual who held the trigger. He (the gunman) who robbed my brother and killed him wasn’t given the opportunity to go to school, he wasn’t given a job.

“Every citizen should be entitled to a kind of job whether he or she is educated or an illiterate and if not, the poor will continue to attack the middle class which my brother fell into.

“I appeal to everyone to love one another and help the less privileged in our midst and put an end to all these (robbery attacks) because it might be your brother tomorrow.”

She added that her brother might have survived the attack if the emergency response system in the state was quick and effective.

She said, “I know the Lagos State Government have some emergency points on some major roads and I hope they are not just there for decoration. I believe that if emergency services were immediately available he might have survived it.

“Meanwhile,  some policemen fled the scene of the incident when my brother was shot. I wonder why the police want to interview me now and take my statements. Is that not medicine after death? I really have some questions to ask them (police).”

Ojia, who wore a customised apparel of her medical consultancy firm, Quick Medical Consults, said Irawo was her next of kin.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Ojia founded the medical firm in September 2010 after the death of her immediate brother, Imole, who died in an auto crash in 2004 when he couldn’t get an emergency medical care.

It was gathered that both Ojia and the deceased offered free emergency and non-emergency medical services for the poor, through the firm, in honour of Imole, who died as a medical student of Igbinedion University, Okada.

He left an indellible mark –LSSMA

Chairman, Lagos State Sports Medicine Association, Akin George, said Irawo, who was inducted in 2010, made a mark within the space of six months that he was a member.

He described him as “a gentle, honest, hard-working, respectful and generous man, who accomplished so much within the short time he spent on earth.

“I got close to Irawo who is a younger colleague in October 2012 and he participated as a volunteer on the medical team during the Governor’s Tennis Cup held in the state and the just-concluded National Sports Festival,” George said.

Irawo laid to rest amid tributes, tears

Tributes poured in for the deceased at the funeral service which was attended by his professional colleagues, friends, and associates including popular Nigerian rapper, MI.

When asked to state his relationship with the deceased, MI said, “Today is a very sad day for me and for everybody here.  I won’t be granting any interviews on my relationship with the deceased. I’m so sorry.”

At the funeral service, Ojia took the first reading from I Thessalonians 4 vs 13-18, while the deceased’s close associates took turns to read the other lessons from the Bible.

The officiating minister, Rev. John Nriama, urged the congregation to live a life that is acceptable unto God.

He said, “One can only imagine what is going on in the mind of everyone seated here and the relations of the deceased. But I want you to know that life is worthless and it amounts to nothing.

“Life is vanity upon vanity. Our lives are not in our hands and there is no way we can question God. I thank God for the services the deceased rendered to people while on earth and I pray that God grants the loved ones he left behind the fortitude to bear this great loss.”

After the service, Irawo’s remains were taken to the Vaults and Gardens, Ikoyi, for interment. Ojia alongside some close associates performed the dust-to-dust rites amid sobs at about 1:53 pm.

PUNCH