Like a classic tragic-comedy, the
story of Oluyinka Odukoya, an ex-lover to billionaire owner of Zenon oil, Femi
Otedola that started on a melancholic note on this blog on December 12th,
2012, has eventually come to what could be termed a happy denouement. Speaking
on phone with this reporter few days back, the hitherto forlorn woman could not
contain her joy (you can read her touching story as published on this blog in
her exclusive interview). “Uncle Saheed, omo yin tide o” (Uncle Saheed my
daughter is back!), she said euphorically on the phone.
Giving the details of her re-union
with her 26 year old daughter over 24 years after the father’s family trickily
took her away on the pretext that the little girl was going to start school at
2 year old after which they continually prevented the mum from seeing her baby,
she said she owed all the gratitude to this blog, other bloggers that made the
story go viral and indeed, some courageous terrestrial magazines that slammed
it on their cover page while damning the consequence.
“I was in Idumota, Lagos, to buy some
goods when I received an unexpected phone call from Femi’s mother in Iragunsin(on the outskirts of Lagos state)
that my daughter was around that I should come and see her. But since I knew I
could not make it to the place that day, I called my brothers to go on my
behalf. And when they got there, they did not only allow them to see my daughter
and interact freely with her, they also gave them a red carpet treatment. It
was only unfortunate that my daughter was travelling back to London where she
works the following day( the reason for which they could not meet in person) but she sent me both her Nigeria and London phone
numbers with which I spoke to her and we had a very private mother to daughter
discussion. But one thing she emphasized was that she read everything in the
media about what happened.”
In the finally analysis, this
achievement has come as a triumph of truthful journalism over “sweep it under
the carpet” journalism that some people had bargained for in the course of
redressing the woman’s agony in the media. A word is enough for the wise…
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