A former wife of Rashidi Yekini, Adeola,
has said that many of those who were close to the late Super Eagles
star, did little to avert his death. Yekini died on Friday.
The Osogbo-based mother of Yekini’s
second daughter, Mariam, was at her former husband’s burial ceremony at
Ira, Kwara State, on Saturday, and wondered why Yekini’s friends
allowed his health to deteriorate without raising an alarm.
She said, “We were married with a
daughter but we stayed away from each other after the divorce. Despite
the separation, I visited him regularly each time I came to Ibadan
before his death. We had arguments but it was because of the way he was
living.
“I disapproved his decision to live
alone in such a big house although I was not trying to come back. He was
such a gentle man but people who surrounded him were his enemies. They
must have noticed changes in his life but they kept quiet. He was so
generous and kind but they paid him back in a poor way.”
Asked to describe his final days
especially with an unconfirmed report that Yekini was once taken to
Osogbo, where she lives, for treatment, Adeola refused to confirm it,
instead, she blamed the media for preying on his condition.
“I was not living with him so I cannot
speak about his final days. Perhaps he would have lived longer if the
media had left him in peace. Your people poked into his personal life
all the time and abused his modesty. Since his death, I have had so many
calls but what do they expect me to say about a dead former husband. I
played my part in his rehabilitation but I was practically alone in the
fight. Each time I read something negative about him, I would rush to
Ibadan but I was meeting a brick wall and it was disappointing and
painful.”
Adeola added that she was at an address
in Lagos as she needed privacy to mourn her late former husband, adding
that her daughter was alright but shocked about her father’s death.
Yekini’s lawyer and friend, Barrister
Jubril Olanrewaju, said the late footballer was probably hidden from him
and his doctor in the final days leading to his death. He said they
last met during the Easter period at Onireke in Ibadan and that Yekini
had a personal physician whom he visited regularly.
“I learnt he was taken away for two
weeks before his death but I cannot confirm the circumstances that
caused that or the location he was taken to. That was a big surprise and
they probably took his phone from him because he was always informing
me of anything that happened to him. I am sure he would have done that
if he had his phone was with him during those periods. During our last
meeting, we discussed normally and he showed no sign of depression or
ailment, in other words, he was normal. He was driving around Onireke in
Ibadan when we met.
“Since I met him, he had never spent a
day in hospital. I know his doctor and he never called me to warn me of
any serious health problem concerning my client.”
The lawyer frowned at Yekini’s decision to live alone, but said it was only recently that he made the choice.
“He had a brother, Tobi, who was living with him. But he lived alone till his death which was alien to our culture in Africa.”
Source The Punch
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