It’s been ten years. Yes, a full decade has rolled by since the sky over Epe dimmed in political tragedy.
The 28th day of March 2015 started like any regular election morning. We woke up to the sound of radios already buzzing with election updates.
Prince Olakunle Adewale
The streets were dressed in campaign posters; loudspeakers blared campaign songs, queues of voters grew longer, and officials stood on duty. No one could have guessed that history was quietly holding its breath and a silent loss was making its way toward us.
Some of us voted with ballots; Six of our men voted with their lives.
Muftau Penu, Adewale Kunle, Mogaji Gbolahan, Bello Muiz, Agoro Shamsideen, and Mogaji Wale died while returning from election supervision. A call to duty became a call to glory!
They had no medals, no fanfare, no headlines waiting for them. Just a task, a boat ride, and a quiet sense of duty. These six sons of Epe were not supermen, just everyday men who left home with purpose and never made it back.
Our river, which has been a witness to our generations of dreams, closed around them like a curtain.
Mogaji Gbolahan
Epe town didn’t break. We mourned. Yes, we wept. We grieved. But we did not fall but we came together as one united community.
We do not worship these heroes. But we honour them. And from that moment, a seed of purpose was planted.
Ten years later, a fruitful tree stands on the ground,, irrigated by our tears.
Ten years ago, we formed the AMBSAM Memorial Foundation as a promise that the deaths of our heroes would not be the end of their stories and that their sacrifice would not fade into the silence.
Bello Muiz
The price of Epe’s democracy is not naira, dollars, or pounds. The price of our democracy is the blood of these men.
Ten years on, their homes are quieter, their laughter a memory, and the warmth of their presence replaced by a haunting absence. But we carry them in our decisions, in our resistance, in our resilience.
This 10th anniversary is not just a date on the calendar; it is a reminder that what we lost was huge, and what we gained must never be taken for granted. On this 10th anniversary, we carry pain and pride of equal sizes.
Agoro Shamsideen
May the river that took them make melodies with their names.
May the light of our democracy never flicker.
May their departed souls rest in eternal peace.
10 years on, the AMBSAM Memorial Foundation is still remembering and rising.
The Ambsam Foundation may not have fully achieved our goal of establishing a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) center at Epe General Hospital. Still, we remain resolute and determined to complete this project.
Mogaji Wale
Currently, the project is at the lintel stage.
As we celebrate the foundation’s 10th anniversary, I would like to take this opportunity to call on members of Ambsam and the wider community to come together and help make this project a reality.
Salau Tunde
May the souls of those we have lost rest in peace.
Otunba T.J. Abass
Coordinator
