Schoolmates, friends pay tributes
“The devil has indeed robbed us of a precious child; a child with a promising future, the joy, the hope of his parents and immediate family but what can we do?
No one can question God,” says grieving family.
By Yemisi Odusina
The UEFA Champions League is a big football event. Whenever rival teams clash, it always generates anxieties, assurances, bettings and commitments of all sorts from football fans all over the world.
Apart from the common fact that football is a game that brings everyone in Nigeria together irrespective of tribe and religion, as fans usually abandon work, food and families just to be among other fans to witness a match to the maximum as much as possible, the Champions League enjoys huge viewership in Nigeria. This explains why most men would leave the comfort of their homes to viewing centres to catch the fun and cheer their favourite teams.
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It was in this same spirit that young Oluwagbenga Olukoyi, a second year student of Architecture in Ogun State University, OOU, Ibogun campus, and his classmates abandoned their rooms and put aside the anxiety associated with their ongoing semester examination in the school to a popular viewing centre around their house to watch the the epic clash between Liverpool and Barcelona.
Although Olukoyi’s plan was to go to the class to study once the match was over, fate obviously had a different plan for him.
Some minutes into the match, one of the students, suddenly raised an alarm over a feeling that something crawled on his leg and he thought it was a snake. This led to a stampede. The entire viewers scattered, as everyone took to their heels to avoid being bitten by the snake since it was evening time and the whole environment was dark.
Sadly, Gbenga died in the ensuing stampede while over 40 students were injured.
According to the students, who spoke with The Nigerian Xpress, the viewing centre could take as many as 200 viewers because it was an open field.
Findings by The Nigerian Xpress revealed that the incident left one of his legs broken and was instantly swollen.
“All the injured students were rushed to the school’s health centre that same evening for treatment but Gbenga’s condition seemed beyond the capacity of the clinic. His leg was just swelling up, as if someone was using something to blow it minute by minute. They thought it was something they could treat but when the swelling did not improve, the attendant said he should be taken to another hospital,” one of the students, John, said.
It was at this point that everyone became apprehensive. He was said to have been taken to Ifo General Hospital where his friends were told that he was having internal bleeding.
“All the while, that we were carrying him up and down, honestly we thought at worst, he must have suffered a fracture. We never knew that it was an internal bleeding. In fact, it was after the whole incident that I went to Google it and discovered that a major vein in the leg area must have been torn or damaged, which ended up in the internal bleeding,” he added.
Sadly, Olukoyi could not make it. He gave up the ghost the following day.
Following his death, his family, schoolmates and friends issued profuse tributes the promising young man.
According to one of his grieving friends: “His dream of becoming a celebrated architect has been shattered.”
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Yet another friend, who identified himself as Kunle, has this to say: “He was a lover of football and would go the extra mile to watch any match, especially a Champions League. I have known him for some years now and I can categorically say that he was an easy going young man, who would never hurt any fly least of all a human being. He had once told me that even as a child while growing up, he could leave his food to watch and play football at any point of the day. He could argue in favour of his favourite team but would never take to violence because of it. He was never a fanatic.”
“We had eaten and shared jokes together earlier that day and he told me he was going to the viewing centre to watch the Champions League that day. I am not a football fan, so, I said I was not going to go but a lot of other students went and it was not their first time of going to watch football in that place. There was no premonition of any danger; the whole incident still remains like a film to me. How could someone, who was never sick or complained of any problem just die like that? It is indeed a sad thing,” lamented another student, who simply gave his name as Biodun.
A female student, who simply identified herself as Joy, and claimed to be Gbenga’s friend, also paid him tributes: “Gbenga was an easy going guy. That day, after our examinations, we met briefly and he told me he was going to see us in our hostel after the match if it was not too late. It was a shock that he is no more. I never knew that our discussion of that day was going to be the last. He was not quarrelsome; he would not look down on anyone even when he was a brilliant boy. I remember when we were in year one; he was always ready to give a hand of help to us wherever we had a tough assignment. He was a good friend and it is painful that I have to be referring to him in past tenses. I mean, it is a shock that we will not see him again.”
Another classmate of his, John, lamented: “We were in the middle of the second semester examination; we were supposed to have an examination the following day. We planned to study together after the match in preparation for the paper we were to have the next day but can you imagine? Gbenga is no longer here,” Like John rightfully observed, for Oluwagbenga Olukoyi, the era of writing examinations, graduating from the university and his dream of becoming an architect of note, home and abroad, as one of his friends quoted him to have wanted, will never be. They were dreams, ambitions never to be realised. He had come and gone but was not able to conquer the world as much as he would have wanted.
If his death had thrown the entire students and lecturers of the Olabisi Onabanjo University into mourning, as the ongoing semester examination was instantly put on hold, his parents and entire family were soaked deep in sorrow.
A family member, who spoke anonymously told this weekly that the death of young Olukoyi would forever remain irreparable to the family. His reasons: “Gbenga was a First Class undergraduate of the Architecture department of his school. He was a promising child and a hope of his parents. It is indeed a big blow on us all. His father has suffered stroke and his mother, a petty trader, is not also feeling well. They are just managing themselves and are just struggling to send them to school. Now their hope is shattered. I cannot imagine or figure out how someone, who was not involved in a motor accident, would die of an internal injury. It is so sad, very sad. We do not know how to console them. How is anyone going to do it? Will you say they should not worry that you will give them another child? This was a boy that would have made everyone of us proud.”
Concluding that they had accepted their fate, the man said they had handed over the case to God, saying that He is the only one who can console Gbenga’s parents.
“No parent prays for the death of a child but since there is nothing we can do about the situation, we have accepted God’s judgment. We have sent someone to go and pack his things from the school and the family is keeping a closer watch on the parents. The devil has indeed robbed us of a precious child; a child with a promising future, the joy, the hope of his parents and immediate family but what can we do? No one can question God,” he said.