Story of Kofo Abayomi A Nigerian Who Changed His Name Just To Marry A Widow In 1930

-

 

Kofo and Oyinkan Abayomi 


He is the man Kofo Abayomi Street in Victoria Island, Lagos was named after.




Lagos Lawyer, Moronfolu Abayomi was shot dead in a Lagos courthouse at the Tinubu Square, on August 25, 1923, three months and 15 days after his wedding day.

Moronfolu Abayomi


Abayomi's killer was a popular Lagos entrepreneur and "big boy”, Duro Delphonso, from the renowned  Delphonso family. Delphonso was having a legal battle with his Insurance Company and the case was taken to court. The Insurance Company then hired a young and vibrant lawyer, Barrister Moronfolu Abayomi.


As the case proceeded, the young Barrister was able to prove clearly that Delphonso committed arson on his home and business in order to defraud the Insurance Company.


On August 25, 1923, when Delphonso was being led out of the court to begin his prison sentence, the convict shot Abayomi with a revolver and turned the same gun and shot himself.


Barrister Moronfolu Abayomi died from excess blood loss while he was in transit to the hospital. The bullet had penetrated his lungs.


Delphonso himself was hospitalised, but the Lagos “big boy” refused to be treated and died six days later on August 31, 1923.


The Barrister’s young widow, Oyinkansola was devastated and refused to love any man again until six years later, in 1929, when a young doctor, Kofoworola John showed her a love greater than her late husband’s and asked for her hand in marriage.

Kofo Abayomi


Oyinkansola would only agree to get married only on one condition: that Kofoworola John bore the name of her late husband, that is Abayomi, and relinquish his own name – John. Surprisingly, he agreed and they got married the next year in 1930.


They would be married for the next 48 years until Sir Kofoworola Abayomi’s death on January 1, 1979. He was 82. Lady Oyinkansola Abayomi would live to the ripe old age of 93.


The Kofo Abayomi Street in Victoria Island, Lagos, is named in his honour.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tinubu’s Accurate Twelve-Year Old Prediction On Oil Subsidy Removal by Farooq Kperogi

-
Image
  Bola Tinubu  On January 11, 2012, Bola Ahmed Tinubu published a sober, thoughtful, deeply insightful, and penetratingly foresightful article titled “Removal of Oil Subsidy: President Jonathan Breaks Social Contract With the People” that uncannily prefigured the untoward consequences of petrol subsidy removal that Nigerians are currently grappling with. The article has trended on social media in the last couple of weeks, but I had never taken the trouble to read it until multiple people who I regard highly sent it to me in what seemed like a coordinated torrent of forwards. But after reading the 4,000-plus-word article and finding out that it predicted the current petrol-subsidy-removal mass excruciation Nigeria is suffering with almost mathematical exactitude, I became suspicious of its authenticity. It was too good to be true. My incredulity compelled me to make inquiries, which led me to realize that the Nigerian Tribune had actually fact-checked the genuineness of the article on M
Read more

Bola Tinubu’s Road To Perdition: by Kola Ola Olaniran

-
Image
Kola Ola Olaniran .  What we have today is HausaFulani Republic masquerading as the Federal Republic of Nigeria where other regions are run like conquered colonies. Years ago, a self-acclaimed custodian of the Hausa Fulani hegemonic agenda stormed the Agodi Government House Ibadan uninvited. This unruly and not so composed Mohammadu Buhari was livid with anger as he unleashed his brazen effrontery to ask Governor Lam Adesina, “why are your people killing my people?” instead of, “why are Nigerians killing their fellow Nigerians? It took a well-composed Governor Adesina diplomatic wisdom to calm Buhari’s frayed nerves down over his crude way of addressing the clash between herdsmen and farmers in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State at that time. Can Bola Tinubu, a self-acclaimed asiwaju of Yoruba$land invoke the same audacity to ask Mohammadu Buhari, “Are we running a Banana Republic, “why are all key federal appointments given to only your people?” “What is this rubbish going on especially with
Read more

Taxes: Social Contract Between Society And Government by Akin Adesina

-
Image
  Prof Akin Adesina Charismatic and ebullient African Development Bank President, Professor Akin Adesina has tasked the governments across the globe especially African countries on the social contract between society and government. Speaking at the Chatham House, the policy center for global affairs in London, Adesina highlights the importance of government playing its roles while enforcing compliance with citizens paying taxes.  He emphasized that the government has a responsibility to provide infrastructure to the people with the taxes they pay. If the the people play their parts paying their taxes, the government owes them a responsibility to play its own part by providing basic necessity of good roads, potable water, good hospitals, adequate security and so on. Adesina berates the situation where an individual has to fix his own road, provide his own borehole, electricity with solar power, provides his own security and still pay taxes to the government that abdicates its own respon
Read more