Bamidele Aturu was all I had – Sister

JULY 11, 2014 

Yetunde, younger sister of the late human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, has said that it will be difficult to fill the vacuum created by the death of her brother.

Aturu, described by many as the “people’s attorney” who deployed his calling as a lawyer to side with the masses and fight injustices in the land, was said to have died of high blood pressure on Wednesday, at the age of 49.

Yetunde lamented on Thursday that the circumstances surrounding her brother’s death seemed much to her like a dream.

“Bamidele Aturu, my dear brother, you are all l have. I am finished. Can somebody wake me up, please. My first love, rest in peace,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

On Thursday, dozens of Bamidele’s friends, associates and professional colleagues and all those he had had personal and public interactions with took to his Facebook wall to pay tribute to the late human rights activist.

Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Ibim Semenitari, described Bamidele as a lawyer of a fine breed who was “so selfless.”

“Life is so short. Why on earth do we chase all these fleeting things? Lord, please, teach us to number our days. Adieu, Bamidele Aturu. You were so selfless,” Semenitari stated in a Facbook post.

As more tributes poured in for Bamidele, many lauded his empathy in giving voice to the voiceless, and for speaking against sundry nagging issues of widespread human right abuses and corruption in the polity.

One of his fans, Gambo Mohammed, stated that it was quite saddening to hear about his passing.

He noted that Bamidele fought for justice for the poor and the ordinary Nigerians, in an attempt to see fair play in the respect for human rights and governance in the country.

“You (Bamidele Aturu) offered your industry and your energies to action, toward righting ancient and current wrongs in our country Nigeria, marred with injustice, impunity and corruption.

“We owe something from this minute of your passing, Bamidele Aturu. I mean to say I want to see some kindness and justice, some fair play, and I want to see it through my eyes and through your eyes, Bamidele Aturu,” Mohammed wrote in a Facebook tribute.

A legal practitioner and Partner at Ronik Solicitors, Elijah Oyejide-Akinpelu, noted that the ranks of lawyers who genuinely advance the cause of human rights in the country had been depleted.

Lamenting that a vocal voice against oppression, exploitation and injustice in the land was gone, Oyejide-Akinpelu said Bamidele would be missed by the masses that he stood for.

“Bamidele Aturu, you came, you fought and you conquered. You have swallowed the death in victory for the masses. The legacy you left behind will continue to hold the banner for you.

“May your soul continue to abide in the dwelling place of the most high. Good night, Bamidele Aturu,” Oyejide-Akinpelu stated.

But apart from Bamidele’s activism fighting injustices true the instrumentality of the law in the courtrooms, those close to him during his lifetime said he was a shining light in Christendom.

A committed member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Bamidele was described by many as a man whose disposition to religious activities was uncharacteristic of an activist of his stature.

Samuel Benson, an employee of a shipping agency in Lagos, spoke highly of the deceased as providing “pastoral support” for tens of members of the RCCG, Victory Mega Chapel.

Benson said as a newly-wed, Bamidele provided his young family with all the needed succour and support to survive their trying moments.

“Brother Bamidele, your exit from this bus station called earth is so quick and painful. In the last five decades you spent here you touched lives, defending the helpless legally. You thought me to spend time with less-privileged children.

“For the support you gave us a newly-wed and new family start-up, your pastoral support to us at RCCG, Victory Mega Chapel and the accommodation you used to render my family at the Redemption Camp, the legal support you gave my small business, you will surely be missed by many of us,” Benson said in his tribute to Bamidele on Facebook.

One of Bamidele’s associates, Dele Ajaja, based in Los Angeles, California, United States, said the deceased made sacrifices during his lifetime to seek liberty for the people when he could have pursued wealth.

According to Ajaja, who described himself as Bamidele’s friend, brother, and compatriot, the deceased was “a light in a dark place” that put in efforts to refine the “tyrants” relinquishing companionship with the corrupt and walking with commonplace Nigerians.

“You asked for justice in a land that sacrificed justice recurrently on the altar of influence. Nation before self, you spoke for the voiceless people of Nigeria. A pathfinder, you strove to lead the homeland out of the jungle of exploitation.

“Summing it up, your two scores and a decade journey was judiciously spent, than the living septuagenarians and octogenarians who devalued the land of our birth. Gallantly, you did your bit for a nation that was deprived of goodwill. Now, rest well; take respite; sleep tight,” Ajaja said.