The tale of the People’s Democratic Party governorship candidate in Lagos State, Olajide Adediran aka Jandor, paying the sum of N500,000 to offset the accumulated mortuary bill of late Bamise Ayanwole, is untrue.
The sum of over N500,000, alleged to have been paid by Jandor, it was gathered, was actually paid for by an official of the Lagos State Government.
Further investigation revealed that the mortuary bill in the sum of N588,000 was paid after an invoice was generated on October 12, 2022, and paid for the same day. The bill included an embalmment fee of N50,000, a mortuary service of N5,000, and a storage fee of N533,000 only. The sum was promptly paid into the Lagos State Government Mainland Hospital’s account.
Bamise’s remains have been at the Mainland Hospital mortuary in Yaba since she was murdered in February 2022. Political strategists have condemned Jandor’s move to score political points using a grieving family and the corpse of a young Nigerian, who was murdered.
Olatunbosun Osifowora, a legal practitioner and analyst, described the move by Jandor as not only low but exposed how crass his team can get all in the bid to win the Lagos state election come 2023. He stressed that politicians should desist from using grieving families to score political points.
In the words of political strategist, Bestman Nze, “It’s sad that we have gotten this low just to jostle for political positions. I can’t imagine when we started using grieving people and families to score cheap political points. Anyone ready to vie against the incumbent governor should do so at the polls and with tangible activities not using emotions of the grieving family to score cheap political points.”
Meanwhile, Oluwapelumi Ayanwole-Abegunde, late Bamishe’s elder brother, had alleged that on October 13, he had gone to request for bill and pay but was denied his sister’s remains and was not allowed to make payment.
On October 14, a short video of Ayanwole-Abegunde went viral with him thanking Jandor for offsetting the accumulated mortuary bills and lambasting the Lagos State government without having any idea of who paid.
Ayanwole-Abegunde further alleged that the family members were taken aback when they were notified by the mortuary attendant that the morgue bill had accumulated to more than N500,000 and that the family was expected to pay it.
He said: “We were surprised because we didn’t take her (Bamise) to the mortuary in the first place.
“We went to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, to get clarification but we were told that after the autopsy report, the onus lied on us to pay the bill.
“This has been accumulating without our knowledge. We are very grateful to Jandor for being moved by the story and offering to assist in upsetting the bill.”
Ayanwole-Abegunde made this claim during a press conference organised by the PDP governorship candidate to seemingly humiliate the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
However, Governor Sanwo-Olu has reiterated that the Lagos State Government won’t stop until the killers of Bamise Ayanwole are brought to the books. He promised to see the murder case to a logical conclusion with the offenders facing the full wrath of the law. He also expressed firmly his dedication to protecting and providing security, law, and order for everybody in Lagos.
The governor also noted that an investigation has been launched into the misinformation by those who are trying to sabotage the effort of the state government.
In February 2022, the late fashion designer, Bamise Ayanwole, was allegedly murdered after boarding a BRT driven by Andrew Ominnikoron. The case has been in court while Ominnikoron is currently being detained as the lead suspect in the murder case. The court adjourned the case to October 25 and 31, 2022 for continuation of trial.