Date: 2017-02-20

Commercial tricyclists plying Gaa-Akanbi-Agbabiaka route in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital were thrown into confusion following the mystery surrounding the death of a colleague, Raheem Adeniyi, penultimate Monday.

According to report, Raheem, who was a Lagos returnee, was said to have left the queue leaving his tricycle behind to a nearby public school at Gaa-Akanbi. According to an eye witness account, "It was while at the public school premises that we heard Raheem shouting and calling out to people for help.

"We heard him asking for palm oil and lime as remedy to his predicament but we became confused and thought he had gone insane as a result of his excessive intake of gin," the source disclosed, adding that the deceased said his demands were to appease the spiritual deities in his family. He told us that he often suffers the predicament as he has failed in some of his duties to the deities which were the reasons for his plight.

"We never took him serious; because he is addicted to 'hot drinks' of all kinds. "Then he begged those watching him to get him those items but we felt it was a normal thing for anyone who drinks heavily to speak off sense but after a while, he slumped. Even at that point, we thought he was sleeping not knowing he was dead.

Reacting to the incident, the Assistant Secretary of the Joint Tricycle Association in Kwara State who doubles as the branch Chairman of Gaa-Akanbi/Agbabiaka unit, AbdulAzeez Abdulrahman described Raheem's death as predestined, adding that the deceased was part of those who pasted valentine posters on the day of his death.

"On the day of his death, he was part of those pasting Pasuma's posters for valentine everywhere, but suddenly, I received a message that a member of my association slumped at Shaa'ba Primary School. I first thought he went there to play lottery. "on getting to the location, we carried him to the garage and when we discovered the situation was beyond us, we rushed him to Orisun Clinic at Kilanko, Offa garage area, where he was confirmed dead on arrival.

"Before taking his corpse to the mortuary at Oke-Oyi, General Hospital, we reported the incident at the 'A Division Police station, he said, adding that he had known the deceased for about two decades as they belonged to the same garage in Lagos.

"My longstanding relationship with him was why I never bothered to let him follow due process of joining the association, unfortunately, nobody knows his relations.

"Having been told he is from Laduba, in Ilorin South Local Government, we appointed some people to fetch his relatives. Surprisingly, they arrived in annoyance and arrested executives of the association with the police but the issue was later settled amicably.

"There was a time we learnt he drank a bottle of palm oil to appease some deities. The chairman added that when the remains of the deceased was to be interred at the burial ground along Yidi road in Ilorin, no one observe any prayer for him because he had no such wish while alive. He added that his relatives insisted that they could not touch his corpse either, "not even his immediate brother called Ifayemi, as they all claimed it may have spiritual implication for them."

Efforts to reach younger brother of the departed, Ifayemi, proved abortive as his mobile phone was unavailable as at the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, the state Police Public Relation Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi confimed knowledge of the incident but denied any arrest. "What actually happened in the case of Raheem is a case of sudden natural death," he said.