Lions president slumps, dies

Mr. Olajide Daramola

President, Eko International Lions Club, Mr. Olajide Daramola, slumped and died on Wednesday at Ikotun, Lagos State.
 
Punch Metro learnt that the 67-year-old former Senior Manager with Niger Insurance Company was walking along Ikotun Road when he missed his steps and fell into a coma.
 
Eyewitnesses said as soon as the incident occurred, there was panic among residents and motorists, resulting in gridlock for almost an hour.
 
An eyewitness, who craved anonymity, said some Good Samaritans used his (Daramola) phone to call the last dialed number, which turned out to be his wife’s.
 
“When we called the number, the wife answered as if it was the husband that was calling. We told her it was not the husband and that her husband slumped. Later, we started seeing people who knew him and rushed him to the hospital.
 
“I later heard that on their way to the hospital, he died. It was such a pathetic situation. The man groaned as he was dying.”
 
Daramola was buried on Thursday according to Islamic rites.
 
Our correspondent, who was at the burial, spoke with his wife, Kudirat, who said she received the news as a “rude shock”.
 
Kudirat, who has a child (daughter), nine-year-old Aishat, for the deceased, said when he (Daramola) left home early in the morning, there was no sign of illness, but was alarmed when someone called her in the afternoon (2pm) that he had slumped.
 
Kudirat said, “My husband left home early in the morning hale and hearty. By 2pm, he called me that he was going to bank and I asked him to come to my shop after his transaction at the bank for us to play before going home.
 
“But I was shocked when someone called to tell me he had slumped. I could not believe it. I asked a friend living near the area to go and find out. She called to tell me it was true and I had  to rush quickly to the scene. When I got there, it was true. We had to rush him to a hospital where he was certified dead.
 
“His death has dealt a devastating blow to me. He was a father to me. Apart from me, he was a father to the fatherless. He had been championing the cause of the underprivileged since his youth.”
 
When asked whether the deceased had any terminal illness, he said he was hypertensive and that he had been managing it for almost 20 years.
 
It was learnt that Daramola was expected to move into his new house which took him 10 years to build before his demise.

-- Punch