It was a Saturday afternoon 12th of January
2012 precisely when I randomly went through my phone and couldn’t but notice my
brother’s display picture which had the caption ‘Young Doctor shot dead in
broad daylight in Lagos’. Initially, the first thing that came to my mind was
‘not again!’ after which I posted the picture to my facebook account with the
title ‘What is fast becoming of our Country?’ Few minutes later, my attention
was called to the same post and I was asked if I couldn’t remember the person
whose picture I have posted and my immediate response was ‘I don’t think so’. I
had barely replied when it all came back together like a jigsaw puzzle and I
screamed whilst covering my mouth with my hand. Blood started rushing through my
veins as I was reaching everyone around to confirm if it was the same Irawo I knew
since I was a little child, if it was the same guy we always joked about during
our childhood days that he started his own school from his mother’s belly.
Of course I was really distraught and became scattered
as memories of childhood started pouring in. I couldn’t cry immediately….NO! It
couldn’t be true! I frantically reached an old time friend who happened to be
his Dr Irawo’s neighbour and he confirmed my worst fear that Irawo Adamolekun
indeed was shot and killed as I had been earlier informed. Everything around practically
became dark. Who has he offended or where did his parents go wrong? Memories of
how they broke the news of his elder brother Imole Adamolekun who was killed by
a careless mechanic whilst test driving a car came flooding in and I became
very weak and immobile, I couldn’t imagine what their mother would be going
through…..Three children now remaining one under mysterious circumstances? How
does one console the only surviving child Ojia Adamolekun? What could they have
done to deserve this? What will you tell a parent who had three extremely
brilliant and promising children, all medical doctors but who fate has dealt a
major blow by taking two out of the three in the prime of their youth?
I tried speaking to my brother who was helplessly
crying as the Adamolekuns were his playmate when we all were growing up. He
felt so helpless and so did I.
I felt like cursing a system that have a traffic law
banning ‘okadas’ from highways but refusing to implement same law, otherwise,
how did the ‘okada’ get to the expressway and how did the killer escape on the
same bike that took him away from the scene.
I am continually disappointed in a system where policemen
and other law enforcement agencies will hear the sound of gunshot and flee like
squirrels… These same men in black and other colours of uniform have become
professionals at harassing and terrorizing innocent citizens and sometimes
killed under the guise of stray bullet.
It pains me to my marrow that Imole Adamolekun was
rewarded with evil for his kind heartedness……I say this because Ojia and Irawo
Adamolekun took a cue from the death of their brother Imole and decided to
contribute positively to the same society that failed them as they founded a
medical consultancy firm Quick Medical Consults in September 2010 through which
they offered free emergency services to victims especially the poor so they
don’t die needless deaths like their elder brother Imole who died due to lack
of an emergency response system as a medical student at Igbinedion University,
Okada.
Death they say is a passage to eternity but why at a
tender age? Not even when both parents are still very much alive.
When will all these needless death stop? Will these
‘unknown gunmen’ ever be brought to books? When will the government start
rising up to its responsibilities? So many questions I can’t seem to find any
answer to……
My heart bleeds……Why will a young man who ideally
should be angry at the government for failing in its responsibilities but
instead chose to give back selflessly to the same society be violently killed
in broad daylight while the people charged with the responsibility of ensuring
law and order takes to their heel? Permit me to say that it is looking more
like a failed State by the day……
For Doctor Irawo Adamolekun, It’s Rest in Peace Beloved till
we meet to part no more!
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