Dateline: Friday, June 14. 2024. Destination: Eruku, in Ekiti Local Government Council of Kwara State. The rude news of the death of this great icon, father, friend, compatriot and very virtuous man; hit the ancient city like a whirlwind rumbling through a thick forest.
Pa Omotinugbon, 96, the Iba Oke’agim of Oke’agim clan of Eruku, led a meticulous life that touched the lives of scores of .families, friends, indigenes in, and visitors into the town, positively. His down-to-heart love for humanity glittered at the sundown of his beautiful life. So, the indigenous people of Eruku, old and young, thronged out in their hundreds to pay their last respect to the nonagenarian, whose life was a source of inspiration for all and sundry.
It was a carnival of scintillating colours as about four local bands accosted the gold tainted casket that bequetted the final accommodation that ferried the kind hearted on his solo homeward journey to the celestial realm.
Pa Omotinugbon was unimaginably honest, exceptionally diligent and uncompromisingly hard working.
He was a rare enigmatic father, who gave his all to add beautiful marks to nature.
According to Dr Mercy Ilori, a Director with the nation’s Ministry of Transportation, “dad was all that fathers should be to his children. We have a father that was full of love and compassion for his children. In love, he trained all of us to ensure that education he could not get was lavished on his children. He was a father in a million who raised all of us together indiscriminately. He was an uncommon icon in whom passion and love radiated and flow freely. “
Pa Omotinugbon breathed his last at the Titcomb Hospital, Egbe, Kogi State on Monday, 14th April, 2024.
The entire town received news of his death with dampened spirit. Sadness hung on the air of the sleepy town which just came alive as sendforth ceremony of the unccommon icon began Monday, June 10, 2024.
The people gathered in groups on hearing the death of Pa Omotinugbon, talking in hushed tones, about his large hearth and and generosity; humanitarian deeds of a man who actually came, saw and conquered all, to break the chain of poverty in his highly respected Omotinugbon’s family of Ok’agim clan, in Eruku.
Mrs Arinola DadaJoel, a senior nurse at the Federal University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State, says: ” we have no choice but to love a man who was a father to all. He was a nice man whose good deeds resonated across Eruku land. We sincerely commiserate with the entire Omotinugbon family for the colossal loss as we pray fervently that God grant Papa eternal repose.”
To Barrister Kolawole Omotinugbon:” this is indeed a very sad moment for us, not because he died young but for his ever refreshing advise, prayers and unforgettable positive impacts on us, the children he left behind, the community and the world in which he lived.”
Ifeoluwa Adunni Adeoye says: “death is pitiless; death is wicked; death is callous. We never wanted him to go now.”
But death is inevitable. Though it is natural we don’t want our loved ones to leave us, life has been ordered to the contrary.
So to Banjo Omotinugbon, “we really loved dad but God loves him more. It is God that took him to the place of everlasting rest.”
Now that Pa Omotinugbon is gone, all that can be said is that he did his parts.
Lessons to learn is to tap from his enviable life and make needed amends to the righteous path in anticipation of our own end, in a life, so wonderful but very brief.
Rounding off, Engr Harry Ilori says: “we say goodnight and safe trip to our ever amiable father on his journey to the great beyond.We extend our condolences to the close associates of Papa. May God grant us all the needed consolations.”
Death is a debt we all owe and a debt we must pay back.
Adieu, gallant warrior and rest in peace sir.
