3rd April, 2021
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has described late Afenifere’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin as a doughty freedom fighter.
Tinubu, in a condolence message said “Odumakin was a doughty fighter for freedom and the rule of law. He was rock solid in his commitment to Afenifere, the Yoruba people and the several other civil society groups in which he played active roles.”
He said in the struggle against the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the perpetuation of military dictatorship, Odumakin was never found wanting.
Tinubu added that Odumakin was at the vanguard of the battle even at the risk of his life and liberty.
He said it was impossible to credibly tell the story of the emergence of the democracy the nation enjoys in this dispensation today without emblazoning Odumakin’s name in gold.
According to him, in the course of the last two and a half decades, Odumakin and him had cause to collaborate in various organisations and in pursuit of different political causes at different times and that he could testify to his capacity for hard work, his brilliance, his tenacity in his loyalty to his cherished principles.
Tinubu stated that even if he and Odumakin differed politically, he had no cause to doubt his sincerity in charting his chosen path.
“He will forever remain a model of what a citizen who places the good of his country above his personal interest could be,” he said.
Odumakin died on Saturday at the Intensive Care Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, where he was being treated for respiratory due to complication from COVID-19.
According to his wife, he survived COVID-19 a week ago, but was rushed to the hospital on respiratory issues occasioned by the virus.