He eventually drowned in the lagoon. Abaniwonda was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate for Lagos East in the April 9, 2011 National Assembly election. According to Abaniwonda’s driver, simply identified as Wasiu, the senatorial candidate, who lost to the incumbent Senator Tunde Ashafa of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and whose name was among the list of 10 nominees sent to President Goodluck Jonathan for consideration as minister from Lagos State, was coming from a bank on Lagos Island when he told the driver that he was pressed and would need to use the toilet. Wasiu added that all his entreaties and persuasions that his boss should wait until they get to his office, at the CSS Bookshop building in Broad Street, fell on deaf ears.
“He took off his jacket, wristwatch, wallet and made for the lagoon side. We were even telling him that is not the toilet, he insisted on going towards other direction. We called him again and he answered in Yoruba saying: Ani mo fe se gaa, meaning, “I want to defecate”. All of a sudden we just saw him in the lagoon.
“I saw him dive into the water. We threw a floater and a tyre at him but he wouldn’t use them. Instead, he struggled to a deeper side of the river. “He was there still floating for about three minutes and luckily a flying boat was on sight. We waved at the boat to help rescue him at the point he was still floating but when the boat arrived, he swam and hid under the last pillar; when the people saw that they went there.” Another eyewitness account said Abaniwonda slipped and fell into the lagoon while going to the toilet. But she confirmed that he obviously frustrated all attempts at rescuing him. She, however, blamed the marine police for their inability to rescue the drowned senatorial candidate, saying they didn’t do anything special to help him.
The Epe-born politician, was a senatorial candidate for Lagos East under the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the ACN before crossing over to the PDP in 2003 after he sought to contest the senatorial district’s ticket on ACN’s platform but was asked to step down for the eventual winner of the ticket, Hon. Olorunnibe Mamora, Abaniwonda holds a first degree from the University of Ife, (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife). He is the founder and managing partner of Alade Abaniwonda & Partners, an investment company, with offices at the CSS Bookshop building, Broad Street, Lagos. The question on the lips of sympathisers was: “What could have made a supposed millionaire leave his family and wealth to commit suicide by jumping into lagoon?”
God help us! Another suicide?
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