“Say it to my face that I killed my son” – Rashidi Yekini’s mother dares lawyer
Sikiratu Yekini is the mother of Nigerian football legend Rashidi Yekini who died under “suspicious” circumstances on May 4, 2012.
Sikiratu, her family and Yekini’s lawyer have since been locked in legal battle over who controls the late player’s estate.
The lawyer, Jubril Olanrewaju Mohamed, insists Yekini’s estate belongs to his daughters, Yemisi and Mariam.
But Yekini’s family members don’t share the same view.
“The family called a number of times asking that the properties be sold and shared among themselves,” Mohamed told Premium Times in a May, 2015, interview.
It is not clear if Yekini’s aged mother was part of the “conspiracy” to rob the legend’s daughters of what Mohamed called their “rightful” property.
But in the heat of the battle, Sikiratu accused Mohamed of making a very serious allegation.
I have not seen him (the lawyer) since the eight-day remembrance prayer of my son, and I pray I see him before I die because he accused me that I killed my son.
That’s what the old woman was quoted to have said in an interview with Naij.com.
But Mohamed has denied the claims.
“I have never accused her of killing her son, and I think someone must have misquoted me because I never said so,” he said.
Let’s return to that Premium Times interview and relive what Mohamed actually said:
He (Rashidi Yekini) did not die naturally and I asked some questions on the circumstances leading to his death and they have not been able to provide me with answers. According to the report of his late younger sister who died shortly after he died and was the mastermind of his abduction, she said that morning of May 4 (2012), she said they gave him tea because he was tied down because they felt he would escape if they did not tie him down. She said Yekini begged to be released to see me and that he was being smoldered where he was. It was after he took a cup of tea which he requested for, he became restless and started gasping for breath. That was when they took him to a nearby hospital Al-Amin Hospital in Apete, in Ibadan.
According to the doctor who attended to him, Yekini was virtually dead when he was brought in because the pulse was actually very feeble before he could do anything the man was gone. So I wanted to see those guys who took him away and ask them what his treatment plan was because you can’t die in such circumstances and it would not raise suspicion. By the laws in Lagos state, there would have been an inquest into his death; the coroner should have been brought in to verify the cause of his death. That was what I was asking for. The family members might have had genuine reasons for doing what they did and I was not out to persecute them. I just wanted to know the cause of Yekini’s death. Just like what happened to Michael Jackson, there was an inquest. If it were a nobody now, we could just overlook such things but a whole Rasheed Yekini was taken to the native doctor forcefully and he died there and we did not know the cause of his death.
I wish I did more to keep him safe. I thought the police order was good enough but may be stationing a policeman would have been better. I was disappointed that the police failed to make any arrest and ended up calling it a family affair and saying no one had come to declare their grievances. I asked them if there was a corpse lying in the street would they leave it there because no one came to report? They however were waiting for me to write a petition and I did not do that because I expected the police to bring up the coroner law and find out the cause of death of a man who was kidnapped from his house and later found dead despite an order restraining some people.
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