... And the Good Samaritan died - Murdered in cold blood

Olobe in his life timeAn elderly woman had just had the ‘usual’ encounter with an Okada. As Olobe in his usual manner helped the woman home, he ended up being clubbed to death by the woman’s son. Taiwo Olanrewaju reports the sour tale.

No word could aptly describe Mr. Tirimisiyu Adegoke Yusuff’s character more than “the Good Samaritan.” He was an epitome of kindness. Mr. Yusuff was described by all as kind, nice, good, loving, caring and someone who would go to any length to help his neighbours.

His kindness cut across tribe, religion, sex and age. He was always ready to help anybody at anytime, even when it was not convenient for him to do so.

Many do not know his name(s) and some could not even identify him, but his nickname, Olobe, is a household name at Shop Mejo area of Boluwaji, Ibadan, Oyo State, where he resided and had his shop. That was not because he was a “shon of the shoil.” Far from it. But it was his good deeds that turned his nickname into a household name in Boluwaji community.

Recounting his good deeds, sympathisers who had come to empathise with his wife, Mrs. Tawa Adegoke Yusuff, said some time, when a motorcyclist and his passenger were having a heated argument over money, it was Olobe who settled the issue.

The cyclist was said to have claimed that the female passenger did not tell him that she had N500 note on her and as such, he did not have any change to give her. The passenger also felt that N500 note was not too big a denomination to give out for a N50 ride on the motorcycle. Rather than allow the argument to continue endlessly, Olobe paid the N50 fee.

On another occasion, a motorcyclist hit a boy on the Boluwaji — Odo - Oba road, and Olobe was in his shop, along the road. He was said to have quickly carried the boy to the nearest clinic and paid for his treatment.

Mutiu, the okada rider in the hospital bedA vulcaniser by profession, Olobe was said to have been extremely nice to his customers, the motorcyclists. “Even if a cyclist went to his shop as early as 6:00 a.m. on a Monday without a penny, Olobe would not send him away. Rather, he would attend to his needs, and offer him financial assistance if need be,” a cyclist said.

Another claimed that for a cyclist not to work in a day due to the lack of necessary tools on his cycle, Olobe would rather give the tools, especially tyre, to the cyclist and ask him to pay him whenever he had the money.

Corroborating the sympathisers, his wife, Tawa, said at a time when her husband moved to Ibadan from their Lagos base while she was still in Lagos, he took ill and she came to see him. She took him to the hospital and there, they saw an elderly woman who was on admission, salivating and there was no relation of hers in sight to clean her up.

“As ill as my husband was, he went to the woman and used his hand to mop the saliva into the small bowl provided by the hospital. He did it so religiously you would think it was ewedu (a kind of vegetable) he was mopping. When it was meal time, I told him, I couldn’t eat with him because of the saliva he had soiled his hands with.

“Far from being offended, he only counselled me on the need to help others, claiming that it was our duty to help whosoever was in need.” When he was still in Lagos, his 30-year-old wife said there was a time she was looking for the mat they used at home, only to discover that it was with their landlord. She said she knew immediately that it was her husband who gave the mat out.

When she asked him why he had to do that since the landlord collected his rent as at when due, she said her husband said he had to do it because he knew the landlord had no mat to sleep on and that he had since bought a replacement for the household, so there should be no cause for alarm.

Later, Tawa said her husband sat her down and reminded her of when he was asthmatic and their landlord took them to Ikenne in Ogun State where he was treated. “It was our landlord that used to back my husband like a baby because he could not walk then,” the indigene of Isale Ijeun in Abeokuta recollected.

She said her husband told her that it was not right for them to abandon the landlord when he had problems and so, when she eventually left Lagos for Ibadan in 2002, their landlord’s little daughter, Omowunmi, followed her and stayed a whole year with her before she eventually returned to Lagos.

Tawa, Olobe’s wifeSuch was the lifestyle of Olobe and so, when a minor accident occurred in front of his shop at about 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, he felt it was business as usual and swung into action to help the elderly woman who was involved in the accident.

According to information gathered by the Nigerian Tribune, elderly Madam Florence Omotoso, a cleaner and biscuits seller in a private nursery and primary school along Idi-Mangoro area of Sanyo, an area she also resided, went to Boluwaji area to buy N200 worth of biscuits which she intended to sell in school the following day.

Sources claimed that as Madam Omotoso crossed the road, she was hit by a motorcycle and fell facedown, hitting her mouth on the edge of the drainage by the road.

Another source, however, claimed that to avoid hitting her with the motorcycle, the cyclist, who has eight tribal marks on each cheek, used his hand to push her out of the road and she fell down, hitting her buttocks on the tarred road, thus, hitting her upper teeth on her lower lips, thereby, lacerating the lips.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on his hospital bed in a private hospital at Ososami area of Ibadan, 28-year-old Mutiu Adejare, the cyclist, said it was the woman’s polythene bag, which she used to carry the biscuits, that got entangled with the handle of the motorcycle as the elderly woman ran into the cycle.

The indigene of Atisbo, who belongs to the Elere unit of motorcycle operators, couldn’t explain further as he ran out of strength and could not talk for some minutes. Nigerian Tribune, therefore, decided to let him rest.

Sources, however, disclosed that Olobe, who was in his shop at the time of the incident, joined others to pick Madam Omotoso’s biscuits from the road and the drainage; after which he helped the cyclist to take the indigene of Ilesa in Osun State to Boluwaji Comprehensive Health Centre in the neighbourhood.

At the health centre, popularly called Idera de Hospital, the woman was said to have no bruises on her body and was conscious of place, time and person. As Mutiu was busy paying for one drug after another, Olobe was on hand to take care of Madam Omotoso, putting the potty to her mouth to spit out the blood.

After proper treatment and armed with the correct and necessary medication, Mutiu was advised to give the woman a ride home, but that he should look for an elderly person to accompany him to Madam Omotoso’s place to explain the situation of things to her family members.

Olobe volunteered to follow Mutiu to Madam Omotoso’s home. Sources claimed that Madam Omotoso claimed to have no mobile phone with which to contact any member of her family and, no sooner had they left than a patient at the health centre commented on the fact that one of Madam Omotoso’s son, Segun, was an enfant terrible.

If only the duo of Mutiu and Olobe knew that an unpleasant fate awaited them at Madam Omotoso’s place, maybe they would have been more conscious of their action. It was a jolly ride to the home of the Omotosos with the madam of the home sandwiched between Mutiu and Olobe on the cycle. Just before they got to her home, a source claimed that Madam Omotoso brought out her mobile phone and called her son, Segun. So, as they alighted from the cycle and were explaining to the people around what happened, the boy, Segun, came in and asked his mother what went wrong.

His mother told him that she was hit by a cycle and her broken lip sutured. Segun was said to have left the gathering only to come back with a long wood with which he attacked the cyclist; smashing it on his jaw and again on his right shoulder. Sensing danger, Olobe took to his heels, moreso that the people around tried in vain to overpower Segun. The more agile Segun ran after Olobe, caught him and was said to have smashed the wood on his head from the back.

Olobe was said to have slumped and fainted while the people around bought sachets of pure water which they emptied on his head and body and applied mentholated Robb on his body and nose. Surprised that her husband could be involved in such an incident, Tawa rushed to the scene, quickly arranged for a vehicle which rushed the victim to the New Day Hospital, Academy, where an injection was given to him while he was placed on drip.

Thereafter, Tawa claimed that blood started coming out of his mouth and nose. When the blood did not stop, he was given a referral letter to the University College Hospital, Oritamefa. On the trip to UCH, Olobe was said to have fainted twice. And at UCH, Tawa said it took some time before they were given a bed for her husband’s admission. She said they paid all the amount they were asked to pay while treatment commenced in earnest.

After some time, relations around led her away from the ward and told her that they had to go and source for N42,000.00 for her husband’s brain x-ray, not knowing it was a way to get her out of the scene.

Meanwhile, Olobe’s immediate younger sister, Mrs. Rashidat Lamidi, said Olobe was placed on oxygen and passed on while his blood was being drawn out as the blood was turning black already. “My brother passed on smiling, saying I helped (assisted) to the point of death,” volunteered Mrs. Lamidi, a food vendor around Boluwaji area. She said her brother got his nickname, Olobe, when he used to assist her to sell food years back.

Telling the Nigerian Tribune about the last day of Olobe on earth, Rashidat, who claimed her brother was about 50 years old, said they went together for a family meeting at Ode Oolo, their mother’s family house; while she returned home, Olobe went to their father’s house at Beyerunka to see their eldest brother, Mr. Alade Yusuff, a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Eleyele branch.

He went back home to have a nap during which time his wife fondled with his cheeks - a sign of the undying love that has kept the union alive. He was still resting at home when his wife went for a meeting and thereafter, went to her shop, thus, her surprise when news filtered to her that her husband had been beaten mercilessly at Sanyo area. She was said to have even argued that her husband was at home sleeping.

Sources, however, disclosed that by the time some members of the family went to effect the arrest of Segun, he and his mother were nowhere to be found. His younger sister was said to have been taken into custody at the Boluwaji Police Post where she was released shortly. She was, thus, said to have been taken to the Sanyo Divisional Police Headquarters to avoid being lynched while the police also stopped their home from being torched.

Meanwhile, Olobe, who is survived by two wives and five children, had since been interred on Tuesday, 24th March, 2009 at his site at Olunde area of Ibadan. Speaking on the person of Olobe, Mr. Morufu Eletu, Chairman, Boluwaji/Odo-Oba unit of motorcycle operators said he was a very nice man, who stood by others and took their problems as his own. “More than any other person or group of people, the motorcyclists in this area would feel his demise. But this is God’s case, for which there is no appeal.”

In honour of the Good Samaritan of Boluwaji — Odo-Oba area, all motorcyclists plying the route and shop owners in the area did not work from Monday to Tuesday, 23rd to 24th March, 2009.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ms. Bisi Okuwobi, was not in town when the Nigerian Tribune called her on phone and as such, was not aware of the incident, but sources close to the family disclosed that Madam Omotoso reported herself at Sanyo police station on Tuesday and was asked to report back after treating herself as her lips were said to be bleeding still. They, however, wondered why a man would take the law into his hands.