*I was accused
of killing him – 90-yr-old Rev S.T. Ola Akande
Samuel Oladele
Akande, 3rd indigenous General Secretary of Nigerian Baptist Convention, served
in various capacities for 40 years (1951 to 1991), the last 12 of
which he was
the General Secretary.
Rev. Akande
revealed a shocking incident in this interesting chat. Details below:
Vanguard: How
does it feel to be 90 years old?
I just do not
feel it that I am 90 years. I still feel like I am in my 70s or 60s because,
with the power of my brain to have been able to produce 12 books since 1986, I
still feel like a young man. I wrote my first book in 1986 which was published
in Yugoslavia and contained 69 sermons which I have preached over a period of
40 years. If it were not for the sore that developed on my right foot, I do not
feel that I am 90 years. At the thanksgiving service where the people were
rejoicing with me at 90, I told the congregation that I was giving them an
invitation to be prepared to attend my 100th birthday.
You suffered
intense opposition when you were NBC General Secretary...
Oh, the
opposition was too much for 12 years. I was almost accused of being a murderer.
I was accused of killing a fellow reverend whom I arranged to go to America to
do doctorate degree; but the man liked women too much and he refused to listen
to warning.
Shortly after
he arrived from America, he began to have amorous affair with his landlord’s
wife. The landlord went to Molete Baptist Church to complain about his affair
with his wife and asked the church to warn him to leave his wife but the
reverend did not listen.
The day he was
caught was a Monday. I had travelled to Lagos. The reverend sent all his
children on errand — asked one to give a letter to me and encouraged his wife
to go and study in a school and he slept with the landlord’s wife. The landlord
knew that would happen and had set what we call magun ‘don’t climb’ on the
wife. As soon as he finished, he dressed and walked down to the stream and the
kind of ‘don’t climb’ that the husband of the woman used on his wife was the
type which one should not cross the stream. As soon as the reverend crossed the
stream, he fell down at the other side and died.
How could you
have killed him?
Before he left
for the US, he was a top official of the Baptist Convention. He had
misappropriated some money and I kept on pressing him to refund the money and
his family thought it was because of my constant requests that caused him to
have heart attack. Even a medical doctor supported the claim that the reverend
died of heart attack and that I must have been responsible for the death
because of the way I was writing to him to refund the money. It was later that
a senior member of the Baptist Church came out in the open and said they should
leave me alone as the reverend died of ‘don’t climb’. As soon as that news
spread, the reverend’s wife, who was teaching in Ibadan became so ashamed that
she ran to Saki.
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