How I Escaped Being Shot During June 12 Struggle – Canada Based Olayiwola Shotomiwa Shares Story As He Turns 50

How I Escaped Being Shot During June 12 Struggle – Canada Based Olayiwola Shotomiwa Shares Story As He Turns 50

Even though now in the comfort of a relatively sane environment, former President of the
National Association of Business Administration and Management Studies, NABAMS, Lagos State Polytechnic Chapter, Olayiwola Oyedele Shotomiwa who turned 50 years today, didn’t just arrive in Canada by dint of miracles, he went the hard way running for his dear life.

Born and bred in the rustic town of Igbogbo area of Ikorodu, Olayiwola Oyedele Shotomiwa alias Ola’Ola, as fondly called by friends, has seen it all. In this exclusive chat with BlackBox Nigeria, Ola’Ola, shares his views on a range of issues, his coming biography and how he instigated the anti-June12 annulment protest in Ikorodu.

OlaOla spent about 8 years learning to be a Truck Diesel Mechanic at KB Automobile Mechanic. Two years into his training, he had joined the shop in 1991, the most unexpected happened within Nigeria’s socio political milieu, when Nigeria’s freest and fairest election that ought to have ushered in Chief MKO Abiola as President was annulled by Military President Ibrahim Babangida.

Across the length and breadth of the country, young people who are tired of the tyranny of the military government took to the streets in protests, as this was raging across Lagos State, young Olayiwola Shotomiwa, who participates in reading newspapers at the newsstand located at the Ikorodu each time he is heading to work wonders why there was relative peace in his hometown.

Rather than stand akimbo while people are protesting to be part of history, OlaOla said he took his destiny into his hand by setting up burn fires on the second day to protest along Oba Omolaja Ogunlewe Road down to Obafemi Awolowo Way in Igbogbo. On the third day, he said he went to Ikorodu for more information about what is going on at Ojubode, where he was unfortunately arrested by the army deployed by the military junta. After strenuous beating, he was forced along with 3 other arrested protesters to pack the remains of burning tyres on the road.

By sheer providence, the Soldier that was supervising them was distracted after they had packed some few Tyres with their bare hands, so OlaOla made a dash for his life without minding the consequence. But the Soldier gave him a hot chase, obviously angry he was losing one of his arrested protesters. OlaOla said the Soldier shot into the air to make him stop but he was as determined as a raging storm to regain his freedom.

“If not for the grace of God and the help of an old woman who took it upon herself to hide me under her bed when a soldier was chasing and shooting at me blindly, I would have been amongst the lives lost in that struggle. It is not an experience that one can forget in a hurry,” he told BlackBox Nigeria correspondent.

Asked why he endangered his life to such extent, OlaOla said he did it because he felt his community was sleeping while a revolutionary movement was taking place.

Reminiscing over what happened during the June 12 political protests as he turned 50 years and the return to civilian rule in 1999 which was the direct results of the struggles of 1993, he said he is not too satisfied with the turn of events in Nigeria particularly when one looks at the leadership structure and how the dividends of democracy had failed to trickle down to the masses at the lower rung of the policy ladder.

“Exemplary leaders are today hard to find, despite the huge resources the country has expended on infrastructure provision, we remain a nation yet to attain its full potential and our nomenclature as the giant of Africa is mere words without action,” he said.