Lanre Oyekanmi, the elder brother of the late Director of Finance and Accounts attached to the office of the Ogun State governor, Taiwo Oyekanmi, who was killed by gunmen suspected to be armed robbers in Abeokuta on November 29, 2023, talks to BANKOLE TAIWO about the incident and how the devastating loss has affected the family

How related are you to the deceased?

I am Lanre Oyekanmi, the elder brother of Taiwo Oyekanmi who was murdered by gunmen suspected to be armed robbers last Wednesday while on official duty around the Kuto flyover bridge in Abeokuta.

There is about a seven-year gap between us. I was born 1965 but he was born 1972. My mother had two sets of twins. He (Taiwo) belonged to the second set. My younger sister, who was born after me, is a twin from the first set of twins; her twin died in infancy. My late brother’s twin also died in infancy.

Can you recall the type of childhood you had with your younger brother while growing up?

Growing up was fun for us back in our Ifonyintedo village in the Ipokia Local Government Area of the state. I was the first to leave the village for school when I was about 11 years old. My father was a very hardworking farmer, but he later added a bakery and was in the business of baking bread. So, we grew up in such an environment, going to the farm and baking bread.

Given his humble beginning, how was your brother able to rise to the position of director in the governor’s office before the sad incident?

This is a story that I would love to share because when my father was growing up, almost all his siblings left the village, leaving behind my father to stay with his father who was our grandfather. So, my father had the same mindset as he stayed behind in the village with his father. My late brother, Taiwo, did the same for our father, so he chose him.

How?

He lived with my dad and whatever they did worked together. So, when it was time to go to secondary school, my father convinced him not to go, and that they should continue the farm work together and he agreed. But because of the love he had for education, coupled with the fact that he usually saw his mates with whom he left primary school going to school every morning, he took from his savings which he got from his bread-baking business which he did during his spare time and secretly went to school.

Was your father aware?

My father was waiting for him that day on the farm but he never showed up. Later in the evening, my father discovered that his son had gone to school and was no longer ready to work on the farm all the days of his life.

What did he do?

He said if that was what he had chosen to do, he should continue with his education. That was the first breakthrough for my brother. After his secondary school education, he gained admission to study a particular Education course at the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta, which I cannot remember now. However, about a month later, he was offered admission to study Accountancy at Ogun State Polytechnic, which is now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ojere, Abeokuta. My father’s elder brother, who was working with the Ministry of Education, advised him to leave the FCE and go with the Accountancy offered to him at the polytechnic; he said it was better with bright prospects and that one would always have the advantage of studying a professional course.

What type of student was he back then?

He was brilliant and very focused. He took the West African Senior School Certificate Examination once. I got a teaching appointment at the time he was in secondary school and was posted to his school. He was in the science class with about eight or nine others. The pupils in his class were not more than 10. To be considered for the sciences in those good old days, one must be academically sound to some extent. I am talking of the 1980s and early 1990s. He left secondary school in 1992 and in 1993 or 1994, he gained admission. So, he was academically good to some extent. He underwent his one-year national youth service in Abia State.

When did he join the Ogun State Civil Service?

After his national youth service, he joined a quarry company in Abeokuta and worked there briefly, maybe for about six months before the company wound up. He then returned to the village to join our father in the farming and bread-baking business and it looked like my father was happy in a way – that he had gotten a partner, someone who could take over from him because he had always wanted that. So, Taiwo, who was very hardworking, started from where he left off. It was while doing that that he met his wife who was teaching in a primary school and they had their first child. The farming involved the cultivation of maize, and cassava and we equally had an oil palm plantation, so life was really good for us. While growing up, we never lacked anything good. Although we may not say we were born with a silver spoon in our mouths, we had our needs taken care of. However, we didn’t joke about farming. While I was at the university, when I came back home during the holidays, I went to the farm.

So, toward the tail end of the administration of Chief Olusegun Osoba as the then-governor of Ogun State, he was employed in the civil service as an accountant. He did not even want to take the offer because, at the time, people thought that (Osoba’s successor,) Otunba Gbenga Daniel, might get there and sack the beneficiaries of the late recruitment exercise, but graciously, Daniel never did that and that was how Taiwo began his civil service career.

Where was he deployed to when he started working?

I think he started with the Bureau of Establishments but I can’t really remember now. As soon as he joined the service, he got good counsel that he should try to be certified as an accountant, and that was how he applied to be certified by the Institute for Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and became a Chartered Accountant. He was among the few ICAN-certified accountants in the civil service. The majority of the civil servants were certified by the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria. So, he started with the Bureau of Establishments as said, he was in the pension (department) and later the Bureau of Transportation and from there to the Ministry of Finance as one of the accountants.

However, when the director of finance and administration attached to the governor’s office was promoted to the permanent secretary, he (my brother) was promoted and transferred to take over as the DFA in the governor’s office, and I think it was at the beginning of Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration if I can still recollect correctly. I need to say here that till he breathed his last, he combined his civil service career with farming. He was a farmer par excellence. His workers and colleagues can testify to that; he always gave them fresh corn, and some village farmers might not have been able to match up with his farming prowess. He spent most of his Saturdays on the farm. He still made good money from the cassava he sold about two months ago.

What did he plan to do when he retired?

I know he planned to retire into farming just as I would also like to do. Farming is like our passion; something we cherish so much as a family. It runs in our blood.

How did you get to hear about his demise?

I was called by one of my younger brothers who was called from the Governor’s Office that Taiwo had been shot. I was in Owode-Idiroko when I received the call; he never told me that my brother was gone anyway. So, as we were on our way down to Abeokuta, I was making calls to find out what really happened.

Who did you call?

I called the Deputy Chief of Staff, Dr Toyin Taiwo, who was like a cousin but rather than say anything he was just crying, so I knew the worst had happened.

When did you receive the first call?

My brother called me around 4:04 pm on that fateful Wednesday. By the time I called the Deputy Chief of Staff to the governor around 4:16 pm and he was just crying, I said we had lost him (Taiwo). I quickly called another cousin in Abeokuta to go and find out and 10 minutes later, he called back to confirm our fear.

Can you describe the current mood of the family?

We are devastated beyond words. Who would have expected this in the next 30 years? He was just 51. He was killed five days after he celebrated his last birthday. But I want to say that it is their (killers’) loss. They (the killers) are the ones to feel the heat.

What do you mean?

I won’t let anyone dampen my spirit. Look at it. How many families were visited by the governor, his wife, the deputy governor, and other dignitaries when they lost a loved one? The governor ordered that the Nigerian flag be flown at half-mast for a week. It shows that he (my brother) was a man who added great value to the lives of others. It is a devastating blow, a big loss to Nigeria, Ogun State, and Ogun West in particular. In Ifonyintedo, his village, and Ipokia local government area, we feel the anger. We keep asking, “Where were the security agents? Why should this happen?” Our pains are indescribable; we have a lot of questions to ask.

Also, my brother prayed a lot. I can say he usually fasted in the middle of every year; he was a prayer warrior. He started his prayers from January 1 to 30 and woke up at 2 am every day to pray. He didn’t joke with fasting and prayers and that’s why people are asking questions like, “Why him?” But what do we do? Yes, we have the visitation of the governor and members of his cabinet as well as the police with the assurance of fishing out the killers of my brother, but will that bring back my brother? We are hit hard but I would rather celebrate the Almighty God than allow the devil to dance over me.

You said your late brother was prayerful. Were there signs of impending danger before he was killed?

What I can say is that I spoke to him last on November 25 which was his birthday. I was in Ifonyintedo on that day, and he was in Abeokuta. I called and spoke to him and my mother and other brothers spoke with him. We sang and we prayed that he would celebrate many more years. However, speaking about premonitions, what I only observed was that the day before he was killed, I could not sleep. I had a series of dreams that I could not even explain, so I prayed from 12 am to 4 am, praying generally for everyone, being the eldest child. I equally learnt that my late brother and his wife had just finished a three-week fast that Tuesday. He was gunned down a day after, the reason many were asking questions. Who are we to query the Almighty God?

How is your aged mother coping at the moment?

She is broken but the children and family members are rallying around her. We trust God to comfort her. The pain is better imagined than experienced. All of us will survive it by the special grace of God

The growing insecurity in Ogun State is a major concern for many residents. What do you think about the situation in the state?

The insecurity challenge is a national challenge that the governments at all levels must rise and fix. I also observed that there were issues on the part of the government concerning handling procedures. For instance, will you call what my brother was in a bullion van or contraption? There was no risk assessment whatsoever. I just want to advise the state government that it should use my brother’s incident as a lesson to have standard practice when it comes to the movement of cash. Nothing should again be left to chance. Even if they say the police officer that was supposed to follow them travelled, should there not have been a replacement? You can imagine how many resources will be deployed now, and how much time will be wasted looking for the perpetrators, but if the right thing had been done, we wouldn’t be talking about all of these.

However, just as the governor has promised, no efforts should be spared to bring the killers to justice. The whole nation demands that those evil-doers should be brought to justice. (Saturday PUNCH)

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