My wife’s last words to me were ‘take care and goodbye’ –Crash victim’s husband

 

Mrs. Oluwatoyin Alabi, 45, had barely settled in her new position as the Ondo State Liaison Officer in Lagos when she died on an official assignment.

Oluwatoyin was promoted on September 13, 2013 from her former position as a chief executive officer at the liaison office. However, a state assignment that required Oluwatoyin to accompany the corpse of former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Agagu, to the state from Lagos, for a state burial, began the journey that led to her death.

Her husband, Mr. Taiwo Alabi, 50, said her wife’s last journey, which was to see her deliver Agagu’s corpse to Akure in Ondo State, was shrouded in mystery till the last minute.

Alabi said, “The (Ondo) State governor told my wife on October 1, 2013 that she would be the one to accompany the corpse from Lagos to Ondo. When she told me that evening, I asked ‘why you, since you’re not a commissioner, but she said that was what she was told.

“I asked what type of flight they would be taking, but she said nobody had told her yet. On October 2, 2013, she got a call from the Commissioner for Special Duties that they should meet at the morgue to dress Agagu’s body and make arrangements for police escort.

“On October 3, 2013, she left home around 5am and called me some minutes before 8am that they were at the airport. I asked what airline they would be flying but she said that up till that moment, she still had not been told which airline it would be. But 25 minutes later, she called to tell me that it was Associated Airline and that they were waiting because the weather condition in Ondo was said to be unfavourable.

“The name of the airline didn’t ring a bell because I had never heard of the airline before, so I told her to be careful and find out more. Then later, she called to inform me that the weather was fine now and that they were leaving. She said ‘take care and good bye’, but I didn’t know that those would be her last words to me.”

According to Alabi, there was news that Oluwatoyin and other passengers were supposed to fly another plane belonging to another airline before a last-minute change.

He said, “We heard that they had booked for another airline but changed to Associated Airline in the last minute.”

Alabi said he too had left home that morning for Ibadan in Oyo State, and heard about the crash on his way.

He said, “Thank God I had one of my brothers with me because he was the one who took the steering wheel from me. The news shocked me. I thought ‘where do I start from?’”

Alabi and Oluwatoyin had been together for 24 years, ten years of courtship and 14 years of marriage. Their only daughter, who is 11 years old, is in Junior Secondary School Two, Federal Government College, Sagamu, Ogun State.

Alabi said telling her daughter about Oluwatoyin’s death was one of the toughest things he had had to do in his life.

He said, “When we managed to tell my daughter, with the support of some other people about her mother, she fainted and we had to revive her. She was very close to her mother. But surprisingly, she has been strong since then. She’s the one that is even encouraging me now.

“Her concern now, which she has been asking me, is ‘how will I cope at home alone’ by the time she returns to her boarding house. My mother and some other relatives are with us now but they will soon leave.”

However, Alabi said he would not consider remarrying until her daughter was old enough or in the university because he could not risk giving his daughter a “step mother who would maltreat her.”

“I don’t want any woman to come and maltreat my daughter because one cannot trust anybody on anything,” he added.

Alabi said he had barely eaten since his wife’s death, considering the void she left behind.

He said, “I can’t even say these are my weaknesses because she had been covering for me. She was so generous that she was only spending about ten per cent of her salary on herself.

“She would buy this and that for widows, pay school fees of people. I don’t think I can meet up with the legacy she left behind because she was paying school fees of about 20 people.”

Alabi said he left his job in 2006 to go into printing business, but that the country’s economy had been rather harsh on its survival.

He said, “So my wife had been the one supporting the family a lot. She had even planned to buy a printing machine for the business by the time they paid all her allowances. Government should have pity on the family.”

Meanwhile, Alabi said he was yet to receive a call from the Associated Airline or any of the aviation-related government agencies.

He said, “There has been no single call from the airline since the crash. Even the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority or any of the agencies has also not bothered to call the family. I think it’s very bad.”