Kashamu: The Man Who Cheated Justice! By Ozodinukwe Okenwa

Can you guess what these fallen big men of power had in common? CoS Abba Kyari, Dahiru Saleh, Abiola Ajimobi, Adebayo Osinowo and (now) Buruji Kashamu.

Well, they all died of Coronavirus complications at the sophisticated First Cardiology Consultants Hospital, Ikoyi, Lagos. The hospital remains a first choice among the rich and powerful Nigerians seeking cardiovascular treatment. It has been in operation since 2008. It had handled a handful of COVID-19 patients among Nigerian political elites in recent times.

In this dangerous season of Corona pandemic the First Cardiology Consultants Hospital in Ikoyi, Lagos has suddenly become a glorified undertaker for the mighty victims of the global epidemic scourge of our generation. Why and how they continued to troop there for medical succour beats one’s imagination. Could it be that the persistent closure of international airspaces left them no ‘greener’ alternative abroad? Or that the comfort and sophistication of the place made it attractive?

The exuberant former federal lawmaker representing Ogun-East Senatorial District and businessman, Buruji Kashamu alias Esho Jinadu, is the latest victim of COVID-19 who died at the famous Ikoyi hospital. Before him was another lawmaker representing Lagos-East Senatorial district at the National Assembly, Adebayo Osinowo, otherwise popularly called Pepperito. 

And before ‘Pepperito’ we had the former governor of Oyo State, Mr ‘constituted authority’ Abiola Ajimobi. Prior to Ajimobi’s levelling by the ultimate leveller the former Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Kyari, succumbed to the universal grim reaping dictates of ‘Coro’.