By Prof Mike Ozekhome, SAN
I have been laughing in VERNACULAR since this evening when my attention was first drawn to a banal trending story on the social media, titled, “OUTRAGE AS ENTRANCE TO MIKE OZEKHOME’S HOUSE IN IKOTUN-IGANDONIS LITTERED WITH CALABASHES OF SACRIFICE (news.phxfeeds.com).
I would have completely ignored the story, but for the fact that numerous calls have since kept pouring in, all callers worried about my safety.
Keep your peace, my loving fellow compatriots, for I am hale, hearty and covered with the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who fights my battles for me (Exodus 14:14).
The said alarmist story is largely baseless, funny and phony. That is why I have never stopped laughing.
I am now used to such jejune and insipid stories which I am told is part of the fate of a “celebrity lawyer”, as many are want to regard and call me.
I thank God Almighty for making me whom it pleased Him to make me of-a resonating story of “grass-to-grace”.
What has the write-up got to do with me, even when the entire contents are laid out bare, completely stripped of the screaming headline? NOTHING!!!
It was just tied to my name to make it hot and trend. And in this, it has succeeded, for it has been trending.
The story alleged, amongst others, that “reactions have trailed video of near hundred of clay pots of sacrifices scattered a few meters away from the house of human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria ( SAN), Mike Ozekhome”. Many lies!
THE FACTS:
1.The Church Bus Stop mentioned in the story is situate on Ikotun-Igando road, Igando, well over a quarter of a kilometer far removed from my former residence situate at No 1,Mike Ozekhome Lane, Igando, Alimosho LGA, Lagos.
2. I no longer live in the said premises, having relocated from Igando, Lagos, to Abuja, many years ago.
I had subsequently partitioned the huge property into many residential apartments which are on rental to tenants whose identities I do not even know.
Nor do I have any personal relationship with the sitting tenants who presently reside in the premises, since the property is being managed by the famous Odudu & Co-Real Estate Agents.
God has since enabled me to acquire a personal residence in Ikoyi, Lagos. I am forever grateful to God. How wonderful is thy Holy Name.
3.The dump location of the calabashes of alleged sacrifice is thus not even near my former residence at all by any stretch of the imagination, let alone being “a few metres away from the house of human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria ( SAN), Mike Ozekhome”, as falsely alleged. But, as rightly noted by the writer, the dump spot is also called ” T-junction and notorious for ever-presence of dumps of offerings in clay pots and calabashes to spirit beings”.
4. As a Christian of the Catholic faith ( a proud 4th Degree Knight in St Mulumba-KSM- ), I had seen and passed by this fetish dump for the well over two decades that I lived in that beautiful and peaceful community called Igando; a community that accorded and afforded me accommodation, peace and opportunity to grow during my marriage, children upbringing and the first decade of my legal practice.
All I have for and owe the largely Aworis Igando community and its first class monarch, Oba Lasisi Gbadamosi, Orootan 111, the Onigando of Igando, is nothing but love, respect, affection and eternal debt of gratitude for taking me in as their own, at a time I was forced to flee there from my 17 Ajao Road, Surulere residence, to escape from the daily torment and threats to my life by successive military juntas in the days of our struggle in the trenches.
The Onigando had even honoured me with the prestigious traditional title of BA’LORO OF IGANDO in September, 1994.
Some day, by the grace of God, I will tell my full story in my own biography.
But, even with the presence of these fetish objects, I was never affected, afraid of, or terrified by such luciferous and satanic agents of darkness.
When you are with and in God (as I am), such impotent lower classes of ethereal “beings” can not faze you, (Rom 8:31).
5. The story also claims that “behind the ( St John’s) Catholic Church is the Mike Ozekhome Street named after popular lawyer and human rights activist whose house is one of the first buildings in that area”.
The story is only true to the extent that my house is one of the very first houses in that area of the then sleepy little village, Igando, now a sprawling residential, commercial and government hub.
But, it is not correct that my former residence is behind the St John’s Catholic Church. There are many houses behind the church ever before getting to my former residence.
Indeed, a long stretch of a street called Osunba Street completely separates the church far away from my said former residence.
6. It is also false that the Oba’s palace is “less than 200 metres” from my then residence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The palace which is situate between two major roads, the Igando-Ikotun Expressway and the Isheri-Lasu Expressway, is nearly one kilometer from my then residence.
So, we are not even near each other at all as falsely alleged. What did the writer of this story hope to achieve at the end of the day?
I would not ascribe his intentions to mischief or an attempt to run me down or unduly disparage me.
I think it was simply a sensational, transactional and merchantilistic write-up meant to enable the blogger make huge sums of money by linking my God-given name to the story.
It could have been published and still retained its message and essence without mentioning me.
And in this, I think, using Machiavelli’s well known philosophy ( I do not agree with him ) of “the end justifies the means”, the blogger roundly succeeded.
Otherwise, why would such a simple and innocuous story be linked to me and start trending?
I have now changed my laughter to a guffaw. By God’s grace, I am covered with the blood of Jesus.
My portion is Psalm 105:15. And to some known and unknown enemies of progress, let them read what the good Lord says of me: ” Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Psalm 23:1-6 ). AMEN, AMEN AND AMEN
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