Lucky Fellow:How i missed the Flight – Deji Falae's Friend

KUNLE Rotimi-Akodu, a friend to Deji
Falae, one of the victims of the ill-fated
chartered flight that crashed in Lagos on
Thursday, said he had been feeling
disappointed to have missed the flight
before receiving the news of the incident.
Rotimi-Akodu said he was meant to be
with his friend, Deji, who was a
commissioner in Ondo State, in the
Associated Airlines plane for the Lagos to
Akure journey but that he providentially
got to his friend’s house late and missed
the flight.
He was in tears at the crash site on
Thursday.
He told our correspondent,
“My last encounter with him was on the
phone. We spoke about how we could
meet and he told me that he had some
official duties, especially the funeral
programme of the former governor of
their state. So, we planned to meet in
Lagos. We still spoke on Tuesday and he
said he would be in Lagos.
“We were supposed to see but
unfortunately I couldn’t make it. I called
him and he said I should join him today
so that we would return to Akure
together on the same plane that crashed.
He said I should make haste to meet up,
but I had an emergency issue to resolve.
“By the time I actually got to his house,
the housemaid told me he had left and
the wife had left home too.“The
housemaid said, ‘Oga just left, he said
you should find your way to Akure.’
I felt disappointed for him to have done
that, but because of the kind of person
he was, I began to plan my trip to Akure
to meet him and incidentally, I learnt that
a plane crashed as I wanted to leave
home and that Deji was also involved in
the accident.
I was dumb-founded when I heard. I
looked up in my room and saw the
catalogue of pictures we took together
and tears began to drop from my eyes. I
looked at the text messages we shared
and began to picture myself being with
him in the plane because that was the
initial arrangement, if not that I was a bit
late to join him.
“Honestly, it is still like a dream. I don’t
want to believe Deji is dead. I believe he
is alive and he is still going to live his
normal life. We have lived together for
years in Dolphin Estate. I have known
him for over 15 years, when he was still
studying in University of Ife. We have
always been close since late 80s