₦airaland Forum

How Pastor Sola Abraham was Killed by an Okada Rider in Ipaja, Lagos

By: Deji Yesufu

A typical working-class Nigerian home is quickly becoming something similar to what is obtained in the Western world. Gone are the days when the man does all the earnings and leaves his wife in the house to cater for the children. Today, if most of us will survive the harsh economic climate that Nigeria has bestowed on us all, both man and wife must work. It means also that traditional roles like babysitting children, cooking, and school runs, which hitherto were the main preserve of the woman of the house, are now equally shared by the man. It was while venturing on a similar role that Sola Abraham Oyelana met his death.

Sola had taken his three daughters: Tomisin (9), Tomiwa (8 ), and Tobilola (4) to school. He had dropped the two older ones at the primary school within the neighbourhood of Ipaja where he had lived since the 1990s. He had carried Tobi in his hand and was heading to her daycare, saddled with having to take her lunch bag and water. Anyone who knows Sola knows that he is a man who never shrinks from work – he served both family and church faithfully.

Sola was on the way to Tobi’s daycare when he was run over by a young man on a bike. The report that I got stated that at the very point of impact, Sola was more intent on shielding and protecting his daughter, so that the hands he ought to have used to guide himself as he hit the floor, he used to hold Tobi. He hit the street floor with his head and went into comma immediately. The bike man who ran into him, noticing that all the attention was on the motionless Sola, picked up his bike and fled. Sola had succeeded in shielding his daughter: Tobi had no scratch on her body. A good Samaritan found Sola’s phone and despite the lock on it, he discovered that Sola Abraham had wisely stored some emergency numbers on the phone. He called one of them which, thankfully was that of his wife.

She alerted the church Sola served and, in a few minutes, they were at the site of the accident. Tobi was retrieved, while Sola was conveyed to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where a five-hour surgery was performed on his head. After the surgery, Sola was monitored at the intensive care unit of the hospital. Sola never recovered. At the wake-keep, on the 31st of January, 2025, at Christ Bible Church, Ipaja, Pastor Osagie of Sovereign Grace Bible Church told mourners that from the moment of impact to the ground, after which Sola went into a comma, he never opened his eyes again. It is safe to say that he was immediately translated into the presence of his Saviour on that Thursday morning, a little after 8 am.

Olorunnisola Abraham Oyelana was born into the family of Mr Ojo and Mrs Grace Oyelana on the 28th of October, 1982. He was their firstborn child and the parents had every reason to rejoice over his birth. He was born in Bariga, Lagos. For his primary school education, Sola attended the Jelly Las International School in Agege, Lagos, from 1987 to 1991. Sola was a native of Ekiti State. In 1991, Sola began his secondary school education at St. Joseph High School, Mangoro, Lagos. He obtained his Secondary School certificate in 1997. Sola joined Government Technical College in Ikotun Lagos in 2001, where he specialized in furniture and building. He was there until 2003. In 2005, Sola commenced undergraduate studies at the Lagos State University (LASU) where he obtained a BSc. Degree in Economics. Sola has a certificate in Pastoral Studies and Theology, which he obtained from the Christ’s Pastors Seminary in Lagos (2013). He also obtained a diploma in Pastoral Studies and Theology from the London Reformed Baptist Seminary in 2018. Sola has three younger siblings (Adeloye Deborah, Ololade Elizabeth, and Segun Michael) and two step-siblings (Bukola and Oluwatosin). Sola married his beautiful wife, Adejumoke Hassan, on the 20th of June, 2015, and the Lord gave them three wonderful daughters.

Sola’s death raises some salient issues that must be considered to evade certain avoidable mishaps. The first that we must consider is the sociological question of what to do with the mass of unemployed and unskilled Nigerian youths that have taken to bike transport as a means of livelihood in South-West Nigeria. I understand that by law it is illegal to ride bikes on major roads in Lagos State. Unfortunately, like most other laws in this country, there is very little effort at enforcing them. There is also the question of who and who is licencing bike riders in the country. It appears that any Tom, Dick, and Harry can just pick up a bike, learn a few rudimentary lessons at riding, and then hit the streets. A 150CC engine bike, the type that many use for transport in Nigeria, weighs between 120 to 150kg. That is about double the weight of an average man. Combine that with the weight of the rider, and then consider the force of that impact on a stationary body, the resulting impulse that will occasion a force of impact will be deadly (in Physics, the impulse is the product of mass and velocity). Beyond prayers, the Lagos State government will do well to avoid another accident like this if they will only ensure that the laws, they have enacted in the states are kept, and that bike riders are dully certified. It is Sola today; no one knows who will suffer a mishap tomorrow.

There was one testimony that was recounted by most people at the wake-keep: Sola Abraham served the Lord Jesus Christ through the local church. Sola was a faithful member of Sovereign Grace Bible Church, which he joined in 2012. He had a strong desire to see a church planted in the Ipaja area of Lagos and worked earnestly to see that Christ Bible Church came to fruition there. He would be considered a founding member of that assembly. One cannot finish this report on Sola without thanking these two churches for all they did to ensure that Sola was kept alive. From the point the churches were alerted, all resources were deployed to ensure that our brother would come alive. But we are confident that it has pleased the Lord to take Sola home to be with him. One must also thank these two churches for their commitment to the wife and daughters. The Lord who is the husband to the widow, and Father of the fatherless, will ensure that the young family Sola left behind will not rue the passing of their father too much. We may call it untimely; but for our Lord, it is within his wonderful and gracious sovereign will. We bow to his good pleasure and worship because we are confident that his will shall be done both in this life and in the one to come. God’s purposes are always good for the saints.

Sola Abraham had very strong faith in what the Lord Jesus Christ would do in our lives. I confess that I often did not share his optimism; I believe that God has equipped believers with the resources to solve their problems. Sola understood this too but also understood that God often brings us to our limits and calls us to trust him. I suspect I would spend the rest of my life learning that kind of faith that Sola Abraham practised so well. Another testimony a lot of people gave concerning Sola was the heart of contentment he lived – this is something else we all can learn as we mourn the loss of our brother. As I was driven into Oshodi, Lagos, via public transport, for the wake-keep, I saw the pillar Sola and I stood by in 2016 as we waited for the church bus that was meant to convey conference attendees to that year’s conference that was holding in Lekki, Lagos. Sola and I had a very long discussion that afternoon – he would always point out the things he appreciates about another person’s faith and play down people’s weaknesses. In 2018, after that year’s conference, and as I sought to find a place to stay for a few days in Lagos, Sola took me to Alaba Ajileye and mandated that kind family host me the few days I needed to stay in Lagos.

Sola Abraham was the best of the lot of the reformed folks I know in Nigeria. It pleased God to simply take him first. The person who found Sola at the scene of the accident ventured first to pry Tobi, his daughter, out of the unconscious man. It is said Sola’s still had a tight grip on the girl, and some force had to be exacted to extricate the girl from his arms. Even while he lay unconscious, Sola was still serving Christ and humanity.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

orisa37:
NO.
TRUMP IS AN APOSTLE FOR WAR AGAINST INDISCIPLINE.

All Hail Lady-Bishop Funke Felix-Adejumo

By: Deji Yesufu

Opinion piece writers are not rabble-rousers. They are agents of change in society that mould a people’s worldview towards fostering better socio-economic cohesion. Opinion writers need not be right always, but they must not be cajoled against expressing their ideas. The world is a marketplace of ideas. What makes for a functional society is when ideas are shared, and a majority buy into it. Even when an idea is not popular, it should not be denied expression.

The ideas I champion on my blog are religious. My ideas have a double edge. In one hand, I wish to see Christian churches be genuinely biblical in doctrine and practice. My argument is that righteousness is always profitable: both in this life and in the life to come. Whatever may become of Western societies tomorrow, the fundamental worldview they were founded on was Christian. Whether it is their work ethics, sports, journalism, politics, etc – the fundamental principles underlying the United States and Europe today is Christian. Now if these societies are working, you want to imitate the principles that gave them these results. So my ideas are both biblical and pragmatic. It is in defining what is biblical, that I often find myself at loggerheads with many Christian traditions – particularly Pentecostals. My object of angst today is Mrs. Funke Felix-Adejumo and her recent coronation as a Bishop.

The last article I wrote on madam Adejumo was concerning her “simony”. I showed how her penchant for raising money from church people, in the name of seed sowing, is patently unbiblical and historically faulty. Simony is named after Simon Magus who gave Peter money so he also could possess power to do miracles (Acts 8 ). When Madam Adejumo asked people to donate a thousand dollars to reap a blessing, I was accusing her of simony. That article made it into my top one hundred articles in the last decade, which has now been published in my book, HUMANITY. Today, madam Adejumo is in the news again. She has been crowned a Bishop. To understand the root trouble with this “coronation”, we must return to the Bible and locate the biblical counsel towards women pastors or Bishops. We find the following:

1 Timothy 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach…

1 Corinthians 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 14:35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

1 Timothy 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
we must obey Scripture, we may want to ask madam Adejumo is she is a “husband of one wife”. If by any chance or delusion, she happens to be one, we might wish to ask her what she understands about “women being silent in church”. If by some miracle she evades this question, you also want to ask her what she understands about women “learning in silence”. If by some gymnastics, she can jump over these three biblical injunction, you must then agree that this woman and those who have ordained her into ministry are being disobedient to God’s commands. Those who have a love for their souls will need to distance themselves from individuals like them.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to inform you that God’s word does not permit the ordaining of women to ministry – whether that ministry is at Pastoral level or even as a Bishop. The impression we get from scripture is that the vast majority of church people will not be preacher – be they be male or female. Most of us will remain evangelists – using our platform to share gospel truths, and living these truths out to our unbelieving neighbours. In church, however, a few men will occupy positions of leadership as pastors and deacons. Among the pastors, a few will be teaching elders. That’s the biblical model. So, when we say women cannot be preachers, we are not saying they cannot be evangelists. Negatively it means most church people will not lead churches or preach. Positively, it means all of God’s people are his witness to the nations.

I feel I am gradually outgrowing criticising Pentecostals. Their errors are so obviously plain, it appears committing time to writing on them is a waste of valuable energy. I realize, however, that a few people read these articles and benefit from them. For their sake, I keep at it. Funke Felix-Adejumo will not be un-ordained because one person criticized her. However it will be on record that at least one person held the matter to the microscopic lens of scriptures and found it wanting. There is no space in this article to mention that those ordaining her Bishop themselves have long been disqualified from ministry. You find then that when a disqualified minister ordains a woman, you have two wrongs making a horrendous error.

Ideas make society. Once I took a trip from Ibadan to Lagos, and I sat next to a naval officer. He spoke to me that while the streets of Lagos are lined with churches, the Nigerian navy spends billions purchasing equipment from Germany and other European countries. He couldn’t fathom it. I told him that while religion made the West, our own kind of religion is destroying ours. If we live out biblical theology in its true form, it will affect our learning. We will improve in our sciences, arts, and even politics. The sign that the pervasive religion of our time if faulty is in the backwards of our country. For fifty plus years, Pentecostals have been promising Christians an Eldorado on earth. It is yet to materialise. The only people that are benefiting from it all are individuals like her royal “bishopress” – Lady-Bishop Funke Felix-Adejumo. Perhaps she deserves a hailing.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

WesleyPepper:
This Yesufu clown is one of the hypocrites we have in the SW.
He’s a bigot who sees nothing good in other religions. He belongs in the same class as Akintola of MURIC.

Tho, I finished the article inspite of the great urge to discontinue after the opening line where he had his tongue deep in Seyi Makinde’s rectum .

How can you be praising Makinde when people were recently mauled to death while struggling for food ?

I was in Ibadan over the weekend and I didn’t see the enjoyment he was talking about .

This is the reason why I don’t take all these government critics seriously .
It is either they are doing it for money or because of ethno-religious sentiments .

The same land that produced Awolowo and Fawehinmi now produces charlatans like our present political leaders and pseudo activists like Farotimi and Yesufu

O ma se oo

happney65:
Thank you Mr Deji.

The so called Awoists are now in power at the federal. I call them fake Awoists by the way. Isn't bringing the people who killed the Great IGE to book should be their priority? Isn't it?

The entire power of the FG sits in their hands so what is stopping them?

There goes the answer. They are nothing but FAKE!

They do not share anything with the Awolowo or Uncle Bola himself. Because if they do, I believed almost two years into the Tinubu administration,the case should have been reopened and people brought to book

Ohh I forgot,one of the principal actors being alleged was the immediate past secretary of the APC.

Shuke

Moment2:
Question

Bola Ige: What is Edmund Obilo Doing?

By: Deji Yesufu

Thanks to the holidays, and Christmas, I have been forced out of solitude. The Seyi Makinde government has made driving a lot easier in central Ibadan, having embarked on a massive road rehabilitation regimen. Thank you, Mr. Governor. Everywhere I go in Ibadan, I see Nigerians enjoying the Yuletide. I am typing this note within the vicinity of Cocoa House – that massive structure, a testament to a functional Ibadan (once upon a time). What is very clear to me, as I behold all these is that time is fleeing away. The young do not know their history and they are in grave danger of repeating the mistakes of the past. This is what I think is running through Edmund Obilo’s mind as he appears to have now ventured on a journey that is aimed at reviving historical events with the hope that Nigeria might find some redemption in the process. I’ll explain more.

Edmund Obilo is called “The Radio Man”. Obilo was a pioneer staff of Splash FM Ibadan, the first private FM radio in this city (2007). Obilo holds a 3-hour broadcast on the same station every Saturday. Today, Edmund regaled us with stories of how Bola Ige was killed. It is interesting to note that Uncle Bola, one-time Governor of Oyo State, Cicero of Esa Oke, was killed in his Bodija home on the 23rd of December, 2001 – twenty-three years ago. That day happens to be my birthday. Obilo brings back memories of Bola Ige’s death by interviewing his daughter. Madam Funso Adegbola (nee Ige), was forty-one years old when her father was killed. She is 64 now. She brought back memories of the sad event that claimed her father’s life and that also almost certainly caused the early passing of their mother a year later. Ige’s wife died after the main witness, who was supposed to give the account that would convict the suspects, changed his testimony. The question this article is seeking answers to is this: what exactly is Edmund Obilo doing?

I ask this question because this brilliant radio anchor has suddenly embarked on a historical narration in the same period a celebrated legal case has enveloped Nigeria. Edmund Obilo’s interviews are asking “Who killed Bola Ige” in the same season Dele Farotimi published a book titled “Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System”. Is the radio man seeing something some of us are not seeing? I have written on how a failed judiciary plunged Nigeria into a civil war. In that article, I showed that a functional society cannot be separated from the rule of law. There are two ways to run a nation: either it is run by the rule of might and money, or it is run by the rule of law. I have shown in my article that modern societies run on agreements, and where those agreements are breached, there must be a functional court system to protect the weak. It is interesting to be reminded that once upon a time our nation’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Bola Ige, was murdered and that his family are yet to get justice for the killing of their father. Like Wole Soyinka said at Ige’s burial, the people who murdered that man are still among us. Many were in power then, and some are still in the seat of power now. Except a nation’s judiciary is jaundiced and criminal, there is no reason why Ige’s killers are not supposed to be behind bars or frying on an electric chair by now.

My thesis in this article remains “What is Edmund Obilo Doing?” I suspect if I were to ask Obilo himself, he would tell you he cannot say. I’ll however take the risk of hazarding a guess. Obilo is trying to bring about a revolution in Nigeria. It is going to be a silent, intellectual, and ultimately effective revolution. Any careful observer of our times will agree that Nigeria is ripe for revolution – the overthrow of the status quo and the installation of a functional system of government in this country. It is a shame that after sixty years of independence, this country can still not boast of free and fair elections. It is sad that money, and not the rule of law, is the final arbiter in our national life. And it is extremely distressing that this country has not installed a system that permits a level playing ground for all – regardless of your status in life. People like Edmund Obilo are reading the handwriting of the times and they suspect that unless a peaceful revolution brings about change to the Nigerian system, a violent revolution will be inevitable. And no one knows where such a revolution will lead.

It is these concerns that occupy my heart as I watch Ibadan people troop out to various recreational spots around the city to enjoy themselves. Things are difficult no doubt, yet the people have found a way to enjoy the times. It is often said that the people that will effect change in a society are usually not too many. The majority are all too frequently satisfied with the status quo. They prefer that the results of elections in the country remain rigged; they have no trouble with one man capturing state machinery with the might of his resources; they have no qualms with judges being influenced to miscarry justice; they are content with wages that cannot take them home; and, as Karl Marx suggest, they often employ religion to mollify their pain and suffering. There are a few who think otherwise. These few rise against the tide and demand change.

Modern history tells us that revolutions need not be violent. We can sort ourselves out in the law courts. Dele Farotimi has reached a point in his case against Aare Afe Babalola that the judiciary would be forced to adjudicate aright because his book has put them on the spot. Perhaps if we begin with a society where the law is respected, and everyone is equal before the judiciary, we will begin to approximate to the kind of society we are all hoping to have our children grow up in. After this, we could begin to have a semblance of free and fair elections in the country, where the will of the people is respected at the polls. And then we can begin to have individuals come to the seat of government who owe their office to the good-will of the people and not to a godfather – the very testimony of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, and perhaps one reason people consider that he is one of few Governors in this country that is performing.

Edmund Obilo is shedding light on Nigeria’s history: both recent and past. He is bringing young Nigerians to appreciate literature and helping them to grasp the philosophy of government. Obilo introduced me to all the written works of Obafemi Awolowo, and ever since I began to read them my thinking has changed – completely. A silent revolution has begun in Ibadan. I think in another twenty years we will begin to see the results. Another friend is convinced that we will see it for another five years. Whenever it comes, we can be confident that Nigeria has no choice but to catch up with other parts of the world where good governance occurs. Making a society work is not rocket science. This is one thing among many that Edmund Obilo is doing.

Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.]Deji Yesufu[/url] is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.

olisaEze:
Just coming from a thread where an underage in Osun State has been on death row for a decade now over the theft of a chicken. And it is looking like the judiciary and the SW region will always be the root of injustice & lawlessness in the nation, not colonialism.

Tochitee:
The only criminal in this situation is dele! As a lawyer,you win some and lose some! But when you feel that the one you lose was as a result of your opponent bribing the judges,then you have to provide an admissible evidence! Anything short of that,be ready to face the full wrath of the law!

Xisnin:
This people don't get it.
Farotimi wasn't the first to claim that the Nigeria judiciary is corrupt.
In fact, I don't think you can find a single Nigeria that would claim otherwise.
But Dele is not on trial for stating that the Nigerian judiciary is corrupt but for
assuming that the opponent he lost a case to must have bribed judges.

He even went further by stating the names of the alleged bribe givers and receivers
even though he has zero evidence other than the fact that he lost a land legal tussle.

Xisnin:
The evidence doesn't exist.
Mind you, there is what is considered an admissible evidence in any country
with civil judiciary.
Hearsay like: I heard from Mr. B that Mr. A did it is not an evidence unless you can get Mr. A
to give credible testimony on your behalf.

Dele has won many cases for his clients under the same "criminal judiciary".
I am wondering how he won and how much he must have paid in bribe to get such favorable judgments.

Interestingly, he never talked about those instances where he won.
Only when he loses does he conclude that his opponents must have bribed judges.

Xisnin:
This people don't get it.
Farotimi wasn't the first to claim that the Nigeria judiciary is corrupt.
In fact, I don't think you can find a single Nigeria that would claim otherwise.
But Dele is not on trial for stating that the Nigerian judiciary is corrupt but for
assuming that the opponent he lost a case to must have bribed judges.

He even went further by stating the names of the alleged bribe givers and receivers
even though he has zero evidence other than the fact that he lost a land legal tussle.

descarado:
Guess I have to buy this book.

Who is this man?
See his office

Multipurple:
What are trying to say? Weren't America colonized by the same people? Is America the independent today or not? It is the choice of our leaders otherwise we can be truly independent. And you cannot say it was because of that judgment that the war came, that part of the story is just somebody's perspective, every military coup based on selfish ambition.

Multipurple:
The what makes you independent if you are still answerable to them?

kingceejay:
And talking about obeying laws, from this writeup we should thus urge the FG to release Nnamdi Kanu if the court says they should.

The consequences of any hazard with him might lead to crisis like what happened in the past.

And from this post its obvious the coup plotters in 1966 never had an agenda to promote Igbo supremacy but were purely focused on redirecting the path of the nation.

For Mr Dele he has already left an indelible mark in the sands of time.

He now has a name..

Dalohad:
A lawyer told me that the reason why you can get one judgement in Lagos State from a High court and your opponent goes to Birmingham Kudu and get another Judgement from another High court on the same matters, is because the high court judge in Birnin-Kudu is aware money was paid to the Lagos Judge. Therefore, he will give his own judgement, injunction or ruling on the same matter collect his own largesse from politicians.

The Judiciary is rotten and there will be more exposé going forward starting from CJN. All the evil they did in the dark will come to light soon.

Blazebond:
The moment Nigeria became and independent state the ruling of the British privy council stopped being relevant in Nigeria,the Nigerian supreme Court ruled in favor of akintola and that's the final ruling.

Multipurple:
I get the point you are trying to make and you are correct on it but I actually support the action of the of the Balewa government in ignoring the judgment of British court as that would made us their puppet (though we still ended up being one).

The judiciary/justice system is exactly the problem of Nigeria.

You cannot have peace without justice.

rinzaugustine:
They are trying to kill that good spirit in Dele farotimi

ibechris:
Thank u to whomever brainstormed on this all-important discuss.
The poor need justice,the needy need justice and those whose land and properties have been confiscated illegally need justice.

I wonder why the poor and needy out of ignorance are supporting those who are killing them?

Thanking u in a big way.

OkCornel:
Hmmm