 |
| Adebayo Babalola |
When Mr. Adebayo Babalola bade his two children, Ibrahim and Rasheed, farewell as he left for the United Kingdom in December 1989 in search of greener pastures, it was with the conviction that very soon, he would reunite with them. But that dream was never to be.
When he got to London, he had problems with immigration and he was incarcerated for four years for running foul of the law. After completing his jail-term, he left London for Thailand and afterwards shuttled between the Asian country and London. In 2005, he decided to return home.
By the time he got home, he could not locate his two children anymore.
Babalola, now 62, toldPUNCH METRO, “I know the children must be adults now and I will probably not recognise them easily if I see them.
“Ibrahim was 10 when I saw him last while Rasheed was about eight. They were both living with their mother’s aunt at 4 Ogun Street, Mushin in Lagos, while I was living with my second wife at Ebute-Meta.”
Babalola said he had divorced their mother, Kuburat, before he travelled. He explained that Kuburat died some years before he travelled, Ibrahim and Rasheed were living with their aunt.
The Ilorin, Kwara State-born businessman told our correspondent that he had a strong feeling that the children were living in Lagos and might not know that he is alive.
“I may have even walked past them on the streets without knowing them. That is the worrisome part of my situation,” Babalola said.
Ibrahim and Rasheed should be 32 and 30 years old respectively now.
When asked if he was trying to locate the children for selfish reasons, and why he did not make contact with them for the 18 years he was overseas, Babalola said he only wanted to reunite with them out of fatherly love.
He said, “I didn’t know I was going to have problem with immigration. After I was released from detention, I worked in London for about six months and went to Thailand where I spent eight years. I shuttled between Thailand and London after that. When I returned to Nigeria in 2005, I started looking for my two children.
“I am their father and I cannot bear the feeling that they might think they don’t have a father anymore. It is not because I need anything from them.”
He told our correspondent he had other children, all of whom were adults.
Asked what steps he took to locate the children, he said nobody seemed to know them when he visited the house on Ogun Street in Mushin.
“Nobody could provide any link that could help me to locate them. I went to the places where I knew my ex-wife’s relatives were living before I travelled and those who are living there at present did not know them and could not provide any information about them,” Babalola said.
He regretted not taking custody of the children when their aunt suggested he should do so.
Babalola said, “Before I left for the UK, my ex-wife’s aunty told me to come for the children but I told her I would do that when I got back from my journey, with the hope that the journey was going to be short.
“After I had the problems with immigration, I could neither contact them nor write letters to them.”
He also did not contact them after he was released from detention and all through the time he was in Thailand.
When asked about the circumstance in which he married his former wife, Babalola said in 1972, Kuburat was working with a band group in Ajegunle, while he was the financier of the group.
He said he later became interested in her.
“I met Kuburat when she was working with the group. I only met her aunt and some of her siblings when I wanted to marry her. I later rented an apartment for her at Mushin.”
No comments:
Post a Comment