November 1, 2021 is a day people of Ikenne town, Ogun State, will never forget in a hurry following the collapse of a 21-storey-building in Ikoyi area of Lagos.
Femi Osibona, the developer of the ill fated property and founder of Fourscore Homes Limited, who is among the dozens who died when the building collapsed on them, hailed from the town.
About seven other indigenes made up of artisans working in the collapsed building and four of Femi Fourscore’s mates in Mayflower Secondary School also died.
WITHIN NIGERIA had reported that a 21-storey building under construction in Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, collapsed on November 1 with many people feared trapped in the collapse building.
According to Vanguard, a high chief in the town, Aare Sola Sodiyan, Akinrogun of Ikenne Kingdom, while speaking on how Ikenne natives handled the news of the collapsed tower said they disconnected power supply to Femi Osibona family house, denied his dad access to the phone to prevent him from hearing about the sad incident.
He said; “When the incident happened on Monday, November 1, we quickly disconnected power supply to Femi’s father’s house so that he would not have access to television, because he loves listening to the news very well.
“We lied to him that the line that supplied electricity to his house was faulty.
“His phone was also cleverly withdrawn so that he would not know what has happened.
“All those that wanted to pay him condolence visit at the initial stage were prevented.
“But after the corpse of Femi was recovered from the rubbles, we then invited one of the clerics at Our Saviour Church to break the news to baba.
“He took the news with fortitude. When he was told, he said, ‘it was God who gave him Femi and it has pleased Him to take Femi away”.
This publication had also reported that Ogun state governor, Dapo Abiodun, paid a condolence visit to the father of Femi Osibona after the body of the late develop was recovered from the debris.
Sunday Adeniyi, one of the cousins of the deceased, described Osibona as a very enterprising person.
“He was into the business from his secondary school days when we were in Mayflower School, Ikenne”, Adeniyi said.
“He once sold second-hand clothing, shoes before venturing into the real estate business.
Femi was a compassionate person who loved to be around children and old people “He liked assisting people without attracting attention. Femi must have believed in the Biblical injunction that says ‘do not allow your right hand to know what your left hand is doing.
“During his lifetime, Femi did a lot in Ikenne. He had programmes for both the aged and school children. He had stipends for the aged anytime he came home. He would buy uniforms, sandals and books for school children in Ikenne.
“He took good care of indigent people. He was a devout Christian and he prayed ceaselessly.
“He was very passionate about the growth and development of his hometown, Ikenne, and he was one of the shining stars that we looked up to in Ikenne.
“The entire people of Ikenne will miss him greatly”.