Nearly two weeks after the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle bearing retired Air Vice Marshal Olufunsho Martins and his driver somersaulted off the Third Mainland bridge at the University of Lagos end and plunged into the lagoon, killing the two men, his family and staff members are still reeling from the “blast”, as one of them described it, and would find it difficult to recover from it.
The mood at Martins’ Martinos Hotels, Suites and Events Centre at No 1, Jobi Fele Way, Central Business District, Alausa, Ikeja, remained dreamy when Eko Trust visited there yesterday.
A couple of staff members who could tell our correspondents a few words said Martins, at 67, was still too full of life until the tragic incident penultimate Saturday to believe he was truly gone.
“He just returned from London on the Tuesday of the week and was here on Wednesday. He was also here on that Saturday, the day he died. He attended a party. We both chatted till the time he left. I was with him. I was the one who locked the door behind him when he was departing for his house and he said good night.
“He also said, ‘Debola, make sure you call me tomorrow’. But as it turned out, I never knew I won’t be able to make that call to him,” Bola Ajakaye, the manager of the Martinos Hotels, said.
Services at the four-storey building hotel appeared suspended when our correspondent visited last week. The four entrance gates at the frontage of the hotel were under lock and key. Of the two big generating sets also stationed close to the entrance gates, only one was working. The sprawling compound of the hotel, which used to be a beehive of activities, was deserted.
Also at the reception hall, the 60th birthday banner of the late Air Vice Marshal, which was said to have been printed seven years ago, stood closer to a big table where there was a condolence register. A few of the staff were met chatting in low tones, all putting up mournful faces.
“Morale is down,” Ajakaye, who clarified yesterday that the hotel was operating somehow skeletally, said. “We are all worried and embittered that our boss, a good man will not be seen again.”
Asked to talk about Martins and his relationship with his staff, Ajakaye said he may not have all the rights words to use but some attributes that cannot be taken away from their late employer were that he was generous to a fault, quite accessible and kind-hearted.
“I started with this hotel when it was first opened nine years ago. I worked for about two and a half years and came back about six months ago. That I returned here on my own volition after I had left simply tells you the kind of person late Martins was when he was alive. He was a gentle, generous person who was also friendly with staff and friends. Despite the fact that I left after two and half years, both of us were communicating on phone till the time he called me back to this place.
“He was accommodating to all. Even if you were nobody, you would be still allowed to be close to him. Even if you were wearing ordinary sleepers, you can be allowed close to him. He was that accessible.
“He was the kind of person that helps people. We have a member of staff who has been working with him for over 30 years. And he didn’t like troubles, It will be permanently difficult to recover from this tragedy,” Ajakaye said.
Naturally, his residence, House No 1, Funsho Martins Street, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, was still wearing a mournful look last Wednesday when Eko Trust visited. With heads bowed, faces squeezed and their mouths oozing inaudible murmurings, sympathizers who were coming in out of the residence left no one in doubt that they were in serious pain.
Relatives and friends that our correspondent approached for comments simply waved him aside, indicating they were too distraught to talk to a journalist. For them, the death of Martins was a great shock, one they were still struggling to live with.
“His death was a blast to us,” Wale Abiola, a young man who claimed to be Martins’ nephew said. “We are still trying hard as a family to overcome the shock. We can only appeal to you journalists to give us time to mourn him. Currently, we are recuperating. And we won’t want to start talking to you now until we gave him enough respect in death.”
When the reporter pressed further on meeting Martins’ widow, Abiola said that would not be possible because she was still mourning her husband. “She just returned from London and as I said, everybody needs time to absorb the shock. We understand that my late uncle was an icon whose death is of interest to many Nigerians, but again, as I said, the family needs time to recuperate.”
When asked about staffers’ anxiety on the possibility of losing their jobs after Martins’ death, Ajakaye said such fear did not exist because Martins and his immediate family were “good people”’ who would not throw people out simply because their direct boss was gone.
“All of our members of staff believe that our late boss and his wife are generous people, as are their children. So nobody is nursing whatever fear of a job loss,” the hotel manager said.
The remains of the late retired military officer will be buried on November 24, 2017.
