Mr McJohn Adebola Olalekan, a Nigerian citizen and a member of the Aresinkeye Royal Family from Oyan, a town in Osun State and members of his family are facing serious persecution in four main areas. For these reasons, part of the family had to flee for their life.
Their problems are in the following areas: As a whistleblower in a conservative and corrupt bureaucracy; threat from business competitors who are occultic; cultural persecution from the royal family members who insisted that his sons be given incisions, a practice that could cause incurable diseases; inability to have a safe place to escape in Nigeria because of the all pervasive influence and the octopus reach of the persecutors. Worst still, there is no government protection for him.
Trouble started for Olalekan when he tried to be a good Nigerian by taking advantage of the Federal Government’s whistleblower policy, an anti-corruption programme that encourages people to “voluntarily disclose information about fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, government assets, and any other form of corruption or theft to the Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Finance.” It was launched on December 21, 2016, by the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari and facilitated through the Federal Ministry of Finance.
There are two advantages to it. Apart from helping to curb corruption, thereby saving the government a lot of money that would have gone down the drain, the person who blows the whistle would also be compensated. Specifically, he is “entitled to 2.5%–5% of the recovered funds by the Nigerian government.”
So, when Buhari was in power, Olalekan was a Principal Executive Officer in the Lagos State Civil Service and was directly involved in implementing and monitoring financial policies designed to prevent corruption. That is, N5 million and above worth of contract must be handled by duly registered companies with fixed addresses.
It was circumvented, as Olalekan discovered. Many directors awarded contracts to their personally registered companies that existed in their briefcases! Apart from inflating contract figures and using counterfeit invoices, photographs, and receipts, Olalekan said some of the goods, after payment, were rerouted back to where they were bought. It was a different form of round-tripping! He cited an example of buses that were supplied to a particular commission, which, on paper, were delivered; the vehicles were returned to the supplier shortly after the photographs were taken. Olalekan lamented: “The supplier received a small percentage of the contract sum while the directors involved pocketed the majority of the funds. This elaborate scheme was repeated across various projects, siphoning millions of naira meant for public use.”
As a good Nigerian, Olalekan said he documented these fraudulent activities meticulously, gathering substantial evidence, including photographs, invoices, and fake receipts and submitted them to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) responsible for investigating such cases. Consequently, the arrest and investigation of several high-ranking officials involved were effected.
The only trouble is that rather than protect his identity, after rewarding him statutorily, Olalekan later knew that he was no longer an anonymous whistleblower. His vehicle was once attacked, windscreen broken, not only that, the CCTV camera he installed in his home showed that certain individuals were monitoring his movement, and they even tried to break into his house! Despite that, he reported to the Police, nothing happened.
The tailing, monitoring and threats made Olalekan and his family unsafe, thus, they decided to vote with their feet outside Nigeria. This became imperative for two reasons. First, given the all-pervasive influence of those who were exposed, there is no safe sanctuary for him in his country. Second, the Police took no action to protect him after he reported the matter to them.
There is another side to the threat to Olalekan’s family: The war against his wife, Mrs. Oyindamola McJohn, by fellow business owners. Here is what happened.
She owned a stationery shop in Agege Market. Oyindamola decided to keep the business going. However, there is a market leadership structure, tied to what was called the Elders Forum, which ostensibly is seen as a trade association protecting its members’ interests, but in actual fact, it operates like a cult, a state of affairs which flies against her Christian faith. Apart from certain esoteric things they do, they practice black magic and demand sacrificial offerings from their members.
All that changed when Olalekan’s whistleblower identity was blown open. Thus, neither he nor his wife was safe again. Matters became worse when those indicted by Olalekan’s findings were reinstated after Buhari left power. They started baying for Olaleka’s blood; they sought his pound of flesh; his persecution worsened.
Things took a diabolical twist when his wife would get to her shop and find charms and other weird objects wrapped in red, white cloths and decorated with cowrie shells. Talk of African mesmerism objects! Worse still, the elders insisted that the condition for her to continue operating her business in that shop was for her to do a human blood sacrifice.
Although a strong Christian who believes that no weapons fashioned against her from the forces of darkness would prosper, his wife feared that she and the children might be armed physically. Hired assassins are a dime a dozen in a megalopolis like Lagos.
For the above reasons, it was expedient that Olalekan, his wife and children should seek refuge outside Nigeria.
The third leg of Olalekan’s problem is his royal lineage, which, instead of being a blessing or advantage, has become a terror for his household. He and his children are of the Aresinkeye Royal Family in Oyan, Osun State, South West Nigeria. Since in Oyan, kingship rotates among the three royal families, including Olalekan’s, the oracle determines which family and, subsequently, which child will become the next king.
Before the oracle makes its choice, therefore, all the children must be spiritually fortified against evil forces, according to the belief here. The spiritualists or herbalists do this by traditional incisions on which they would apply some black powder, muttering some incantations in the process.
There are dangers in the practice. The blades or knives with which the herbalists or spiritualists use to cut the flesh of humans are not sterilised. This could transmit HIV or cause hepatitis. If contracted, these are tantamount to receiving one’s death warrant!
Olalekan lamented that if the oracle selects a child, the marking becomes doubly mandatory and could be repeated in the seclusion room (ipebi in Yoruba) where the head will be shaved clean and more incisions etched on the head, back, wrists and legs. This is scary, for want of a better description.
When Olalekan refused, pressures were continuously applied by family members. “These threats carry significant weight in a community where adherence to tradition is strictly enforced, often with severe social or physical consequences for those who resist,” Olalekan lamented.
Olalekan had to abandon his country home in Oyan and even refused to travel there. Yet, the old folks at home would not stop making calls and sending emissaries, as it is a taboo to disobey the oracle.
While he prayed that the old king on the throne now lives long, no one can be on earth forever. If he joins his ancestors, Olalekan said he or his sons might be the target because “our ruling house is the next to produce the king.” Since Olalekan cannot bear to subject his four sons, McJohn Nifemi Simeon (16), McJohn Daniel Adejare (15), McJohn Temitayo Adedoyin (12), and McJohn Funmilade Blessed (6) to undergoing the dangerous process of incisions, he and his family had to literally abscond from Nigeria.