Fani-Kayode releases photos, recounts ordeal as a child in Ibadan

Ex-Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has released photographs of where he lived in Ibadan when he was four years old and the ordeal he went through when his father was abducted by the military in 1966.

Fani-Kayode, on his Instagram page described Ibadan as the best city on earth.

According to him,”There is no city earth like Ibadan. It is vibrant, powerful, colourful and laced with both ancient and modern history. I came to spend a few days with my friend and brother, Governor Seyi Makinde and I did a small tour of the older buildings in Government House.

“I have just left the house that I lived in from the age of 4 to 6: the official residence of the Deputy Premier of the old Western Region, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, Q.C, SAN, CON, at Oke Agodi Gate, Government House, Ibadan. It was from that house, on the night of Jan 15th 1966, that my father was abducted by mutinous soldiers who had staged Nigeria’s first ever coup d’etat.

“I witnessed the whole thing that terrible night and as I drove into the gate, saw the large building on the hill and drove up the long drive towards the house, all the memories of my childhood and particularly what transpired that terrible night flooded back into my memory.

“My father and Sir Kashim Ibrahim, the Governor-General of the old Northern Region, were the only leaders that were abducted by the coupists that night that escaped death and were not murdered.

“As I stand on the soil of my childhood home and the land where that traumatic event took place, I pray and give thanks to God for sparing my father’s life that night and for granting him many more years.”