Alhaji Soga Hamzat, 71, elder brother
of the slain Toyin Hamzat, speaks toSEGUN OLATUNJI in Ayepe,
Ogun State
Sir, how do you feel about the loss
of your younger brother?
His death is like putting fire on the
family’s body. It’s very painful and devastating. We only pray to God to help
us in this trying period, to give us the courage to accept the loss because
Toyin Hamzat has been a very amiable junior brother.
He’s very intelligent, social and he
was a qualified pharmacist from the University of Lagos. After his B.pharm he
had two Masters degrees, that is MBA and M.sc in Political Science.
What pains us most is that he had
just put up this building (Burj Khalifa) in his hometown not quite two months
ago and he had spent only a very short time living there. For us to lose him at
this particular time, is an irreparable loss.
What would the family miss most about
your late brother?
We are already missing so much,
everything good for humanity about him. He was the Otun Baba Adinni of Aiyepe.
He’s also Otunba Fibigboye of Aiyepe. So, what ever we did in Aiyepe, he was
always there morally and financially. He was just given the chieftaincy title
on October 1 and that was when he moved into this house.
As the head of the family, how was
the relationship between you and him?
He was my confidant. I have only
recovered slightly because today’s is the fourth day since he died. I have been
crying since Sunday night because I was the first to be called and when I got
there, and I saw his body and his car at OSUTH about 10:30pm on Sunday. You can
imagine how I felt as his most senior brother. I am 71-year-old and he was 54.
We were born by the same father. So,
you can see it’s a great loss to me.
How have his wife and children been
coping since his death on Sunday?
His wife is a magistrate in Lagos
State, Mrs. Funke Hamzat. It was a very big task for me to pilot her to Aiyepe
when the incident occurred without telling her what had happened. It was when
she got here that we broke the sad news to her. She has gone back to Lagos
because people would be coming there to greet her. Even this morning Bola
Tinubu was in their Lagos house. And that was why she was not here today to
welcome the Ogun State Governor.
In our family, she’s like a daughter
because she calls me Daddy.
So, how have the children been
coping?
His children are still young. Only
two or three of them are probably above 20. One is in London, the first
daughter is here followed by two boys. One is serving now in Ikeja Local
Government, just graduated from the university.
And so that is the complexity of the
problem we have inherited from somebody who was so close to every member of the
family. He was a family man to the core. A very peaceful man; he never liked
quarrel,
he
would rather walk away. He never liked arguments. People have been trooping in
here since Sunday but what can we do? He has gone; it’s an irreparable loss.