Barrister Aaron Ocholi, the only surviving son of the deceased Minister of State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi, would have been with his family in the car when Sunday’s accident took place.
The Minister, his wife, Blessing and son, Joshua all died from the accident which took place along the Kaduna-Abuja highway.
But for an ankle injury which prevented him from accompanying his family to a church service in Kaduna, Aaron would have been another casualty of the tragedy.
25-year-old Aaron Ocholi had before then, sustained the ankle injury while training on a football pitch and was on crutches when his family embarked on their final trip.
Meanwhile, a close friend of the late minister, Tokunbo Obayan, revealed on Monday, that the late Ocholi got a call from God to go into politics.
Obayan said his bosom friend had always been involved in ‘Christian activities’, hence the bond between them.
“It was so sudden that it was certainly unreal in the fact that, yesterday morning, we did not feel that something like this was on the cards. I actually was flying from Kaduna to Lagos, I live in Lagos. I had no idea that it was even between Kaduna and Abuja, only for me to get to Lagos and my phone rang from everywhere in Nigeria, confirming the ugly incident.”
“So, you can imagine the shock and now for me to also find out that it wasn’t just him but his wife and Joshua, that was like the world had crumbled on us because our families were like twin families.”
“My wife got the first text and she replied that it was not possible. My wife is the Vice-Chancellor of Landmark University and former Vice-Chancellor of Covenant University. Her first reaction was that it was not possible, then the person now called her back and said it was all over the social media, it was devastating to imagine.”
“Two weeks ago, I was here in this house, two days, four days we talked and we planned and to suddenly hear that it was like someone just shut the door, everything we have been planning, everybody calls him my twin brother, even when I am in Lagos, people in Abuja phoned me to find out where he is.”
“When we sat down there and we were discussing, the plans for the future, the fact is that as minister, he had to pull off from anything that will give any look of impropriety which Ocholi was particular about. Even his businesses and things that he was committed to, we were discussing how to handle them to make sure that there was no conflict of interest.”
“That was our last conversation. We were sitting here when he was about to travel to Kogi for the run-off election. He had five children, two sons and three daughters. Ojoni is the first daughter, Aaron is the second son, he was called to bar the day his father was screened in the Senate.”
“He went for a church service in Kaduna; he has been involved in Christian activities for a very long time and that was actually how we met. There is a bond between the two of us because of our love for God.”
“Even his coming into politics was to bring a dimension of cleanliness and most people will not understand if I tell you that Ocholi entered into politics because he had a call. I was the first person that he told. I was sitting beside him when he told me and said Toks, I heard God saying I should go and serve him in politics but I like legal practice.”
“I said if God said you should go and serve him that is where you should go. This is so devastating.”
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