PART 1

August 5th, 1995 looked like a normal Saturday for me. I was in Lagos, living with my uncle, Late Rt. Hon. Oladimeji Longe. That was when travelling was my hobby. Days earlier, I had planned a visit to my hometown, Ilesha. I left for Ilesha in the morning and I arrived home in Ilesha safely around 3pm.

Around 4:30pm, I decided to take a stroll in order to see some friends and my beloved elderly friends, who I'd not seen for a while.

It was drizzling and everywhere was wet the time I was leaving home, so I had on a t-shirt, a jeans and a pair of jungle boot while I topped it all with a friend’s tracksuit jacket in order to checkmate the light rain and the attendant cold.

By the time I got to Itakogun/Idasa area, someone told me that Baba (he and his two other close friends were actually the people I was keenly interested to see; my love and respect for them were great) was burying his father in-law in Oke-Imesi Ekiti that same day. A while after, Baba arrived where I was with some other people that were assisting him in making preparations, immediately he saw me, he started assigning me too some roles.

After I’d done all he asked me to, I announced my intention to leave and the reply I got was that how could I of all people be around without attending his outing.

Considering the level of acceptance and closeness that I enjoyed with him, it honestly won't sound reasonable, so I decided to go back home with the purpose to change my cloth to a better one and to also use the opportunity to tell those at home about my movement but when I said that, it was viewed as an excuse for me to abscond, so everyone present rejected my idea and it was said that I could still attend the way I dressed.

Long story short, we started the journey with me sitting next to Baba at the right side on the speakers for the party that were loaded on the back of a Dyna. We stopped at the Abiola Avenue Junction leading to Hotel on the way to Ijebu-Jesa with the intention to wait for Asunmo, the fuji musician, who had earlier gone to the house of another musician Olas Kayode Okere of juju genre to collect a microphone, to join us.

We were at the junction waiting for Asunmo when Mr Abayomi Adesina, (one of Baba two close allies) arrived in his own vehicle with full passengers, going for the same burial. He stopped on sighting us; after some talks, it was concluded that Baba should join them in Mr Abayomi's vehicle, so bro Taiwo Aluko got down from the vehicle to allow Baba sitting space in the vehicle and they immediately headed for Oke-Imesi Ekiti while the rest of us waited for Asunmo.

Asunmo eventually came and he sat exactly where Baba was sitting before while bro Taiwo went to sit beside the driver in the front and had the mixer and other things that were initially on the seat placed on his laps. The journey started around 7pm. We could not have gone for 10 minutes when Asunmo from the back cautioned the driver, he told the driver to be mindful of the vehicle’s speed as the vehicle was not balance due to the arrangement of the load on it. That was immediately before we got to Yinka Oba Foam factory at Ilo area of Ilesha.

Few minutes after; we just passed Ijebu-Jesa when our vehicle had collision with another vehicle coming from the opposite direction and our driver lost control. The vehicle was just swerving about without any evidence of hope in sight, some of us at the back started falling off and then within split of a second, I had a kind of reflex thoughts where I told myself that jumping off the vehicle was the best option than either allowing it to throw me away or crash with it. In-between, I had the thought that the jungle boot, jeans and tracksuit would protect me from external/physical damage and I jumped off the vehicle into the side road bush with the mind that it would cushioned my landing but the last I knew was my going down after the jump, I never knew when I reached the ground, I was gone!

I would not know for how long I was off, but bro Taiwo told me that I was gone for over two hours while they were searching for help in the solitude area.

PART 2

The accounts of bro Taiwo and that of others present was that I was the only one that fainted and I was concluded to have died.

According to them, only three of us, bro Taiwo, Asunmo and I were without any physical injury, others were wounded. Asunmo was said to have been asking about the well-being of his younger brother, who was also in the vehicle; he was told that his brother was alive, and as he was walking away, he was reported to have collapsed and never woke.

Help came after a long time of waiting for a good Samaritan, I came to consciousness on the way to Odufunke Memorial Hospital, Ijeda and I could hear the vehicle engine sound and everything being said but it was as if the sounds were from 100miles!

I heard them saying that I was dead and they were trying to call Asunmo with the hope he would respond; I then wanted to tell them that I was not dead but the energy to do anything failed me, so I started struggling and they eventually realized that I was back.

The efforts were now on Asunmo but nothing happened. We got to the hospital, I was to be taken in but I signaled that I could go in by myself, I eventually could not and I started vomiting something greenish each time I tried to talk.

I was at the end helped into the hospital. The injured individuals were being attended to, while Asunmo was placed in a separate room, so the injured individuals were asking that Asunmo should be attended to first before them, I was to say that Asunmo was gone and I started vomiting green again, so doctor had me taken to a room, placed in bed and injected. I dozed off few minutes after.

PART 3 coming