Bode, it was Super D who introduced us to each other in 2006 and since that day both of us remained the best of friends with mutual respect and feelings for each other till you breathed your last.
If I had any banking issues especially if it was related to Skye Bank, you were my first choice of call and you were always solving those issues for me cheerfully, notwithstanding my perennial disturbance and irritation.
You were fond of calling me too, in your very gentle, amiable and sonorous voice, to seek from me legal opinions on some matters and even with respect to matters that had to do with native laws and customs , and which also required some witty native intelligence. You trusted my opinions and judgements on those issues for which you always expressed your satisfaction.
I can recall the case the children of the Estate of Late Chief T.A. Oni & Sons which the female beneficiaries wanted to engage me to set aside a judgement that they considered discriminatory against them but which favoured the male beneficiaries. A prominent female member of the family had strongly recommended me to the family but some of them had doubts about my capacity to handle the brief, more so that the other 2( two) lawyers in the case were very Senior members of the Bar.
The family was discussing my suitability for the brief when your call came in that morning and some of them saw your name that appeared as the caller. Chorusely, they asked me, ” So, you are Bode’s friend “? and I answered in affirmative. That changed the entire story and I did not only get the brief but I also got paid immediately. It was through the person that proposed me to the family that I got to know that your mother-in-law is also a prominent daughter of Oni & Sons. Your name opened doors for me severally and I earned the rewards of the good name that you bore and carried gracefully till your demise.
In 2012, when my Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi now of blessed memory, dissolved the cabinet of Oyo State Government and we were sacked ; Bode ,it was just you and my very great and good egbon, Mr. Dele Bello who coincidentally has also joined the Saint triumphant like you, but also yet to be buried, who deemed it fit to give me 2( two) rams( a ram each) for that year Eidel Kabir( ileya festival) while all other persons chose not to do because their gifts were meant for the occupier of the office of the Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice and not a poor Idi-Aro boy that has just been sacked by Ajimobi. You are indeed a true and loyal friend and always very true to yourself and your real self.
Bode, coincidentally, it was my brother, my friend and soulmate,Prince Bamidele Durotade Abolarin (Super D) who facilitated our very first meeting by introducing us to each other in 2006 who also broke the news of your death to me some days ago when he called me on phone that Friday on my way home by asking me ” OJ, where are you and what are you doing? Hope you are not alone and or driving?” When I replied him that I was not alone and that I am good, he dropped the bombshell, ” We lost Bode Abikoye o. He just died”. I was very devastated and couldn’t gather myself together again that day . It was a terrible blow to me. I had just lost a dependable friend and brother.
Bode, may the good Lord accept your homecoming, may He forgive your shortcomings, may He uphold your wife , uphold your children and uphold all those that you left behind and ultimately to grant you eternal rest in the bosom of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Bode, you were a good friend and a quintessential gentleman.
Adieu my friend and brother whose relationship with me was very true and never transactional. I am very sure that we shall definitely meet again on the other side to part no more because we are truly related.
Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo Esq., is the Asiwaju of Ita-Ege in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
