‘You can’t say you love Rashidi Yekini, yet fail to unravel cause of his death’

Yemisi Rashidi Yekini is the oldest child of the late football icon, who died in mysterious circumstances four years ago. Since Yekini’s demise, the cinematography student of Leicester City University has been struggling to come to terms with the reasons (or lack of it) for her father’s death, even when close relations have been putting pressure on her to leave the issues and move on with her life.

Yemisi came to Lagos with her sister, Omoyemi, and her late father’s lawyer, Jubril Mohammed Olanrewaju, last week in search of answers to the numerous questions posed by her father’s death because she wants ‘to close the file.’

She pleads with government to help Yekini’s immediate family to unravel the circumstances surrounding the late footballer’s death.

She said: “Everybody keeps saying Rashidi Yekini was a hero… Nigeria’s icon, yet nobody has asked questions on how he died.

“We cannot move forward if we don’t know what or who killed our father. We need to close the case properly.”

Yemisi said she was shocked when she discovered that all Yekini’s memorabilia from his over 20 years in football had been carted away by unknown persons, adding, “even photographs he took in action have been stolen.

“I once saw a photograph where he was receiving a trophy from Brazilian football great, Pele, but all those things are gone.

“There has been a lot of pressure on us, the children, to sell the house in Ibadan, but we cannot do that. We want to turn it into a museum, where people can come to know more about our father.”

Yemisi debunked the claims in some quarters that the late footballer’s family was suffering due to poor finances, saying that her father left enough resources to cater for her grandmother.

“You can see that we are not begging anybody to help us to survive. I am a student in the U.K, while my sister is in university here in Nigeria. We are well catered for, so I don’t know where that story that we are suffering is coming from.”

Also speaking on the report that Yekini’s mother is going through difficult times, Yekini’s lawyer, Jubril Olanrewaju, disclosed that the late footballer built two houses, one of which comprises four three bedroom flats. “His mother is staying in one flat and collects rent on the other three flats.

“Yemisi and Omoyemi have refused to sell the house in Ibadan because they want to turn it to a monument in honour of their father.

“Yekini did not leave a will because as a Muslim, he did not believe in things like that. But while he was alive he said that his estate belongs to his children,” the lawyer said.

Olanrewaju alleged that Yekini was killed by those who wanted to lay their hands on his wealth, adding, “on three occasions they came to take him away claiming he was insane, but I resisted that move since I knew he had no mental problem. They went to court to seek for leave to take him away but the court threw their case out.

“He had a gun for 10 years and did not cause any incident with it. Yekini drove himself, cooked for himself and went to training unaided. He knew they would kill him if they took him away and that was exactly what happened.”

Olanrewaju said the real cause of Yekini’s death would be unraveled if the authorities arrested the Marabout, who allegedly took him to an unknown destination three weeks before he was announced dead.

“Yekini was dumped into a shallow grave without any autopsy to determine cause of death. The medical doctor in the hospital where they claimed he died has confessed that Yekini was already dead when they brought him to his clinic. The doctor said they begged him to issue a death certificate so that they could take him away for burial. Yekini’s younger sister came to me three weeks before she died to reveal that
Yekini was taken to a Marabout, where he started coughing out blood after drinking a cup of tea.

“This is a case that should be taken up by those involved with such issues. Somebody of Yekini’s stature cannot be treated this way,” he said.