Nigeria’s foremost funeral undertaker, MIC Funeral Services boss, Tunji Okusanya Snr. and his son, Tunji Jnr., Thursday met their untimely death on board the ill-fated Associated Airlines plane, which crashed in Lagos Thursday.
Both men, as well as two staff members of the company, were on their way to Akure to cater to the funeral of the former Governor of Ondo State, the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu. Little did they know that the journey would be their last.
When THISDAY visited the Okusanyas’ funeral home on Odunlami Street, Lagos Island, it was filled with sympathisers who had swamped the place to ascertain the true state of things.
Tears flowed freely as friends, well-wishers, neighbours rolled on the bare floor to express their grief over the departed souls of Okusanya and his son.
Some of the sympathisers described the elder Okusanya as a philanthropist, father, mentor and a man with a large heart that accommodated all.
MIC also lost two other members of staff identified as Kingsley and Chijioke Duru who were brothers.
According to a senior member of staff of MIC, Rotimi Aileru, there were six officials of the company in the ill-fated flight, including Okusanya and his son.
He told THISDAY that as usual, prayers were said early yesterday before the team departed for the airport to board the plane.
“We prayed and director asked me to appoint the people that will join him and I did. I would have been a part of the team, but because of another assignment in Lagos, I stayed behind,” Aileru said.
THISDAY gathered from sources close to Okusanya family that MIC had been contracted to be the funeral undertaker for the burial of Agagu because of the close relationship between Okusanya’s son and one of Agagu’s children.
“They both went to the same school and they have been friends. The contract had hitches before it was sealed and it was almost turned down by MIC, but Junior prevailed on his father,” a source familiar said.
At the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja, sympathisers gathered and wailed uncontrollably after words got out that the mortician, his son and two other staff members were confirmed dead.
Another funeral undertaker, Head of Operations, Omega Caskets, Ayodele Ogini, described Okusanya as a “grandmaster and a big tree” through whom many others came into the business as undertakers.
He said: “He was the pioneer of the modern day funeral industry. He was the person that changed the face of the industry, bringing pall bearers and taking caskets off rickety vehicles. The painful thing is that he would have left Junior, his son, to continue the journey after him, but they were both gone.
“It is a great loss for the industry because of the leading position Tunji Okusanya occupied and the inspiration he has offered others. It is blow.”
Also, the Executive Director of Marblement Ventures, a mortician, Biola Williams, who identified the body of Okusanya and his son, described the elder Okusanya as man who was hard to beat and very supportive of others.
“I worked for Tunji Okusanya for 27 years. I was hoping he will be one of the survivors with his child, but they died. Okusanya gave me courage to face life. I spoke with Junior yesterday and we were expected to be in Akure together. My plan was to be in Akure today. It is sad. It’s like a generation wiped out of existence,” he said.
Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora was the first dignitary who visited the mortuary in the early hours of yesterday. He told THISDAY that he heard of the crash and wanted to confirm if it was true that the Okusanyas were among the dead.
According to Mamora, the elder Okusanya had played a key role in the preparations for the wedding of his son slated for next weekend. “I am in a shock. Tunji was my dear good friend. He was the one really planning the wedding as a go-between for us and the bride’s family,” he said.
When THISDAY contacted a member of the advance MIC team in Akure awaiting the arrival of the Okusanyas and others from Lagos, the leader of the team, who identified himself as Bobby, disclosed that the last instruction he received from his boss, the elder Okusanya, was to get things ready before his arrival in Akure, which never happened.
“He called me and asked, ‘How prepared are you for the arrival?’ I replied by saying we were at our best and ready,” Bobby said.
Adedoyin Adegboye, a former staff of MIC, who had worked closely with the mortician for well over 14 years, and was also present at the head office alongside other mourners when THISDAY visited, said the deceased “was a reckless giver. He is not supposed to go down this way. No accident has claimed anyone’s life in the history of the Tunji Okusanya’s MIC funeral home.”
The elder Okusanya is survived by six children, amongst who are his first daughter, Bolanle. Others are Ope, Ladi and Wura. THISDAY gathered that the mortician’s wives – Mama Junior and Pastor Damola Okusanya – are presently out of the country and all efforts to reach them yesterday proved abortive.
It is worthy of note that when Agagu’s father-in-law died a few years ago, the MIC took over the funeral rites. Although the funeral director was said to have been quite ill before the journey that ended his life, he was a man who never joked with his job.
Source: Thisday
