NFF, Supersports set to partner Rashidi  Yekini Foundation..

By Ayo Ademokoya..

The duo of the chieftain of Nigerian highest soccer ruling body, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Barrister Seyi Akinwumi who doubles as the chairman Lagos State Football Association and the General Manager, (West Africa) of the largest Digital Television Network in Africa, Super Sports has agreed to partner  the initiatives from the Rashidi Yekini Foundation.

  

Receiving the duo of Yemisi Yekini and Omoyemi Yekini,  children of the late football icon who paid him a courtesy visit in the presence of his Vice Chairman Lagos State Football Association, Mr Tade  Azeez and other top official of the Association, in the company of their late dad’s lawyer, Mr Jibril Mohammed  and their guidance on Friday at the Lagos state Football Association office, Onikan, Barrister Akinwunmi personally awarded scholarship which  covers the School fees and other expenses of Omoyemi Yekini who is an under graduate of English Language at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State and also extends the good will to the eldest sister who is a final year student of cinematography at the Leicester City University, United Kingdom as he would love to be personally want to be involved in the progress of the foundation.

 

“I am genuinely overwhelmed meeting what Yekini left behind and now the NFF has finally and formally receives you today shows   we are indeed a responsible organization.  I have already discussed with the President of the NFF, Mr Amaju Pinnick and that is why I am staying behind to receive you despite the heavy schedule we have even today as some of us are in France for the friendly football match with Mali while some are in Port-Harcourt for Joseph Yobo’s testimonial match.

“It is just coincidental that few days ago we were discussing something similar on how to immortalize our heroes especially Rashidi Yekini, only for me to get a call that his children are coming on a courtesy visit.

“Many always say that the Football federation has neglect this person or that person forgetting that Nigeria has a huge collection of heroes living and dead and if no one comes forward in an organized way just like the Rashidi Yekini Foundation is doing, we won’t be able to know what to as even in England and other country a an organistaion has to come forward with an idea and there about the association will buy into it ,here all we read on the newspaper is that NFF hasn’t done this or that without any formal request to us.

Earlier in the day, Mr Felix Awogu also in a courtesy visit to Supersports promised everything in his disposal to support the Rashidi Yekini Foundation as he revealed that there was a plan to do something big for the late football icon with Chief Segun Odegbami unfortunately Rashidi died shortly after.

“This is an opportunity for us to showcase that our legends are not forgotten and we promised to buy into the idea of his Ibadan home been turned into a museum and we will make sure the place is alive, all we awaits is something formal from you to us.” He said

Rashidi Yekini:Where is our dad? …Yekini’s Children

Daughters  want to know how their father died

By Ayo Ademokoya

Daughters of the late football icon, Rashidi Yekini are still in shock that 4 years after  the demise of their father  no one in Nigeria has ever bothered to ask question about what killed the man they claim to adore and wondered if truly Rashidi Yekini ever sacrificed for the country.

21 years old Yemisi Yekini , an undergraduate of Cinematography at the Leicester City University ,England and her kid sister  Omoyemi Yekini, an 18 year old  undergraduate of English Language at the University of Ilorin, Kwara state  in an emotion laden press conference held yesterday at K One hotels, Maryland Lagos on Wednesday as they held journalists spell bound when  they began to share their dreams and aspiration on how exactly they plan to immortalize their father.

“It’s painful that our dad died without anyone asking questions and it is sad because we don’t know what killed .I remember I spoke to him on phone  few weeks before he was abducted and ask him about the rumor that he was mad and he answer that nothing was wrong with him that I shouldn’t mind the rumour mongers. I later was expecting him to call him as he does every Wednesday and Sunday and when I heard nothing I believe he was busy as usual only for my mum to call me later that he was dead, how? She said she doesn’t know, my heart dropped”

“To be honest with you I was in Portugal 2 years ago on vacation and I decided to visit Victoria Setubal, the club I heard my late dad played for . After I introduced myself as the daughter of Rashidi Yekini I was shocked the kind of reception I got and the following week I was invited to watch one of the football match where at half time I was allowed to address the mammoth crowd after the club officials spoke glowingly about my late fathers exploit for Victoria Setubal.I was later presented with a huge action picture of him playing in the colours of the club a jersey with his name bold inscribed at the back.

Unfortunately when I got to Nigeria, I never saw such reception like the one in Portugal yet, I  haven’t seen anything that shows that this man was really great in his lifetime here in Nigeria. The most shocking thing is that people were expecting us, the children to ask what really killed our father because till now we don’t know how he died. In a normal society the country is the one to do the finding for us and feed us back, but 4 years after his death It is  painful that we children are the ones asking our mothers, the country that how did our father died because we don’t ,Yemisi said.

Omoyemi also reechoed the trauma she went through went she heard that people were carrying the rumor that her father died of mental illness.

“There was nothing wrong with my father, I was with him each time  I’m on holidays, this was a man that drives himself without knocking anyone down, he never caused any disturbance in the neighborhood as he got himself more into helping people with his money,  I remember each time he drives us out of thee neighborhood on our way to the stadium in Ibadan,there was this particular man at the junction he gives money to every blessed day and I want to know if that makes him mad because nothing was wrong with him so we don’t know what warranted his abduction for 3 weeks before till he eventually died in the hands of his captors. That is still a big concern to us and we really need an  an answer.

On the issue of the Estate of Rashidi Yekini,The duo of Yemisi and Omoyemi said that no pressure from the extended family would make them sell their father’s house in Ibadan as it is the only legacy that binds both of them together.

“We have a foundation on ground already and we want Nigerians to support The Rashidi Yekini foundation and we would love to turn the house in Ibadan to into a museum where can visit as I’m planning to produce a documentary about the life and times of my father soon, besides the house is the only memory we had left of our father, we both lived with him in the house and we cannot let go of the property for anyone.

Our father left two properties for us, One in Ijagbo  where his mum stays and collects rent for upkeep even when our dad was alive and we never bother ourselves with the proceeds from the rent even our father when he was alive never did ,so why would anyone be pressurizing the lawyer to sell it?

 

The Rashidi Yekini's Family Saga (part 3)

Sikiratu and Rashidi’s siblings.

Immediately fortune began to smile on him, Rashidi, after the USA 94 World Cup, the first thing he did was to bring back his mother from Gwada, a remote village in Niger state where she was living and bought an uncompleted building at Ijagbo which is about 9 kilometer to Ira.

He doesn’t want her to stay in Ira since his uncles had inherited his father’s house after his demise even though he had renovated the compound for them.

The building at Ijagbo was sold by one Yahaya Lawal the Eldest son of one Late Mrs Lawal for 1.5milion naira. The main purpose was for the building to generate a source of income for the mother and also to keep her out of boredom.

Unknown to him,Yahaya has sold the property without the knowledge of his remaining  brother who went to court to get a court injunction asking Rashidi to vacate their mother’s property after Rashidi completed the building with millions of naira. Between 1995 to 2005, Rashidi had spent close to 10milion naira on litigation and eventually he was persuaded to settle the matter out of court by paying another 3milion naira on the building.

While the mother collected the rent of the so called building through the lawyers who was in in charge(Niyi Isola) Rashidi put his mother on a sufficient a monthly allowance and bring foodstuff together with beverages for his mother when he is town and if he is not would send  someone. He also converted the garage downstairs for his mother so that he could sell petty stuffs like bread, groundnut, assorted non alcoholic drinks etc.

Rashidi did this not minding that his mother left him in particular to marry another man when his father died.

 To his siblings, Rashidi was generous to a fault. They lived like a prince and princess and all expense paid by Rashidi. For several years they will swam round Rashidi Yekini like bees with loads of request which Rashidi must attend to even in hard currency.

  Few years later it began to dawn on him that he must empower them also and was instrumental to Akeem’s playing for Bendel Insurance of Benin but was drop for his penchant for hemp smoking. Rashidi managed to get him a contract in Dubai and the same faith befell him out there in the asian country as his contract was revoked.

Rashidi had no option than to purchase a brand new 18seater bus for him to start a transport business few months later Akeem had squandered all Rashidi’s investment on him and bus sold in pieces.

Ismaila too is a self acclaimed “Yandaba”( Vagabond) based in Kaduna , he was worse than Akeem always threatening to kill Rashidi if he fails to meet his demand. There was a time he bought him a car and Ismaila was mad at him for buying a car without money for fuel.  He must be right I believed.

Rofiat his step sister who died in April 2014, had the best of Rashidi before she asked, he would answer. Rashidi did all he could by sponsoring her wedding as well as opening one of the best hair dressing salon for her .yet the whole business efforts was futile.

Personal burden from his failed marriages began to weigh him down coupled with the problems from his mother and his brothers. He started to confide in his new lawyer Jibrin Mohammed who vowed to protect his interest in life and in death.

Exclusive picture of 

(1)Rashidi Yekini's Father's house in Ira that was inherited by his uncle

2)Ayo Ademokoya in front of the 6flats of 3 bedrooms each Rashidi built for his mum

3) Ayo Ademokoya, Rashidi's grand mother and Sikiratu his mother during an interview at the Ijagbo house of Rashidi Yekini 

4)During an Exclusive interview with late Rofiat Yekini

5) Akeem admiring his late brother's picture taken with legendary Pele at Tunisian 94 African cup of Nation

The Rashidi Yekini Family (Saga Part 2)

His love life

By Ayo Ademokoya... (continued from part 1) 

Rashidi Yekini was married five times and had two children from his first and third marriages. The most celebrated one was his wedding to Kemi Olumo at the D’Rovans Hotel Ibadan in 1994. The marriage lasted for just less than 8weeks as Rashidi Yekini mysteriously sent his wife packing from his base in Greece and vowed never to have anything to do with his newly wedded wife whom he married against all odd despite the threat from his first love and mother of his first daughter, Pat Moriam  who at that time was pregnant with his first daughter and got a court injunction against his been legally married to Kemi. Pat eventually moved to the UK and had Rashidat Yemisi Yekini.

His marriage to Deola, a princess from one of the towns in Osun state lasted about 4 months and  produced his second daughter Moariam Omoyemi Yekini in 1998.

The shortest and the most devastating of his marriage was to a 17 year old Hausa girl named Murijanat who lived in Sabo area of Ibadan. The marriage was short-lived as the girl left him to marry someone else who in all ramifications is not anything comparable to the status of Rashidi Yekini the famous footballer. This was another reason for his life of recluse as he could not come to terms with the fact he could not tie down a permanent relationship despite been kind and loving.

He also had a fling with a lady who came to squat with one of Yekini’s tenant at his Oni and sons house in Ibadan. Yekini never denied sleeping with the girl a couple of times. What baffled him was how the lady came back with an 8months  pregnancy when in actual fact  he claimed to have stopped having sex with her for over a year!.

The lady traveled to Ijagbo, Kwara state to report the Yekini to his the mother who gladly  accepted and allowed her to deliver her baby in Ijagbo.

A furious Rashidi would no longer have anything to do with her mother for accepting such a “bastard” as his son and also cut off his relationship with his siblings who thought it was a joke at first.

In company of a friend called Baba Lace in sabo, Rashidi sought spiritual help and was told that his inability for him to tie down a successful marriage was due to the attack from his family member who had been benefiting from his largesse and feared that if he is settled he would rather concentrate on his family than them. This further deepens the relationship between him and his family till he was abducted by the same people claiming they had taken him to a private doctor for treatment where he died..


1) Ayo Ademokoya interviewing Rashidi Yekini's best friend, Alhaji Idris Bawa who was Rashidi's best man  during the wedding to Kemi Olumo in 1994 at the D'Rovans Hotel. He was the one who arranged for Kemi to stay in his house when she was thrown out of Rashidi's home in Greece and Ring Road Ibadan.
2) Ayo Ademokoya interviewing Deola mother of  Rashidi's second daughter Omoyemi Moriam Yekini
3)Ayo Ademokoya with Baba Lace who took Rashidi to the muslim cleric where his marital problem was  revealed to him as been spiritual.