By Adetutu Sobowale
The family, friends and colleagues of slain Adeniyi Sanni, an aide to Senator Solomon Adeola, came together on Wednesday to lay to rest the body of the deceased.
Sanni’s widow, children, relatives and other sympathisers shed tears as the remains of the late senator’s aide were displayed during the church service and interred at the Redeemed Camp vault, Mowe, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Sanni was murdered in the early hours of Saturday, August 5, 2023, in Lagos.
According to a statement by the senator’s Media Adviser, Kayode Odunaro, the late Sanni was stopped by security agents at a checkpoint at Ojodu, on his way to his home in Isheri, Lagos and he was asked to provide the documents of the car he was driving, which he did through his wife who sent all the documents to his phone via WhatsApp.
Odunaro said shortly after, the wife called his associates to say she could no longer reach her husband on the phone, necessitating the mobilisation of a search party.
She was said to have been contacted later by passersby through the next-of-kin phone number on her husband’s driver’s licence that his body was dumped around the Toyota Bus Stop in Oshodi, Lagos with gunshot wounds.
In a separate statement on Monday, Senator Adeola alleged that his aide “was killed by a syndicate of soldiers operating under the newly-deployed Commander of 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment of the Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Nsikan Edet, through the mounting of checkpoints and robbing of lone occupants of cars.”
Speaking to our correspondent after the funeral service, Babatunde Raji-Label, who is the Director General of the Campaign Organisation of Senator Adeola, disclosed that the federal lawmaker had adopted the deceased’s children, Moraraoluwa, Oluwashindara and Oluwafeyidara.
He added that at the instance of the senator, the deceased’s associates had raised over N55m to take care of his aged grandmother, mother and immediate family members.
He also said Adeola had decided to place the deceased’s mother on a monthly salary for life.
Raji-Label said, “The children have also been adopted by the senator and he will take care of the children aside from the payment of their school fees.
“The day after Sanni died, the senator advised that we should raise funds for him because he has children, a mother, and a grandmother. We called on friends and associates and as of now, we have exceeded N55m.
“This is to clear the children’s school fees from their current classes through secondary school education so that the children will not have issues with their education. We also retained their current school which is Chrisland. The Senator has instructed that all the remaining funds will be passed to the wife and the mother of the deceased.
“He also promised to put the mother on a monthly salary until God calls her home. He will also be doing the same for his wife.”
Raji-Label expressed optimism that Sanni’s killers would be caught and justice served.
“They (the killers) should not sleep; they should look behind because God will catch up with them. He is going to get them and they are going to be prosecuted because his death was terrible. So, they have to pay. As they have done this, they should not sleep. They have murdered sleep so they cannot sleep,” he declared.
Adeola, in another statement issued by Odunaro on Wednesday, described his slain aide as irreplaceable.
“It is impossible for me to find a replacement for Niyi. He is my blood and a dedicated aide for almost two decades. I am greatly grieved by his unwarranted death. As a father figure to him, I had to stay away from his funeral as tradition demands,” the statement read.
Speaking during the funeral service, the Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Rhema Chapel (Young Adult and Youth Church), Gbenga Odunowo, said the deceased made impacts while alive.
“We are here today to celebrate a life well spent in Christ. Our brother has made an impact. He has impacted lives. Though he has come to the end of the race, we should celebrate what impact he made in life,” Odunowo said.
