My journey from Cultism to Christ- Ademola Akeredolu
By Emmanuel Udom
What we sow, we reap. This is what the Bible says. For Ademola Akeredolu, 56, life is cruel, unpredictable and mysterious. Life, this indigene of Owo in Ondo state, southwest Nigeria, said has hit him real hard and cruel, forcing him to dump his lucrative, booming, but illegal drug business in desperate search for Christ, after passing through self created hell.
THE BEGINNING
Narrating his cultism to Christ story to our correspondent, Akeredolu said that he was born a pampered and spoil child. Hear him. I was born of wealthy parents on July 15, 1954, in Agege area of Lagos. As the only male child in a family of six children, I was pampered to a fault.
My parents gave me unrestricted freedom to mingle with other children around the railway area in Agege, Lagos and I used to come home in the death of the night. Unknown to me then, the freedom from my parents gave me the access to play with some wayward children and youths, who were selling Indian hemp along the railway tracks. Let me confessed here that the result of the freedom let me to smoking my first Indian hemp, Igbo at the tender age of five years.
This marked the beginning of his eventual initiation into the world of illicit world of drugs dealings and consumptions. But, the now born again Akeredolu quickly throw in what could be described as bombshell. He said apart from his initiation into the drug world, the first Igbo I smoked opened his eyes to see the many rots in our society and I was determined to clean u these rots.
Therefore by the time he finished his primary school in the early 1970’s at Christ apostolic church primary school in Agege and entered Lagos African Church Grammar School in Ifako Agege, Lagos, the rebel spirit in me was already high, with my graduating from smoking Igbo to sniffing cocaine, heroine and other hard drugs, he said.
While this story may sound like fairy tales from fantasy Island, the youngman, while in secondary school said he impregnated some under aged girls, without actually marrying any of them. So, up till this moment I am talking with you, I regret this action, as I have not set eye on any of the girls that got pregnant for me, nor the babies.
THE Obafemi Awolowo University angle
After my secondary school, I worked briefly at the Federal Ministry of Education as well as the civil Aviation in 1976 and eventually got admission to the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo university) to read English at degree level. But, instead of the rebel spirit subduing, it became more intense with every sniff of hard drug as I took my third degree initiation, he jokingly told our correspondent.
You see, my first and second initiations were at the primary and secondary schools level. However, at the university, I was formally initiated to some cult groups, where I used to dare the school authorities, security agents and the police at the slightest provocation, after sniffing my cocaine.
Hear him, I made millions of naira from the illicit drug business I was running on campus and actually enjoyed my life to the fullest without giving a damn about the children I sired from nine under-aged girls in Agege.
“I was sleeping with women of all shades and sizes, jumped from one five star hotel to the other drink and end up in gutters, dead drunk and mix different illicit drugs and suffered them to be “high, he said. Apart from all these, I began to read some occult books, practiced some of the teachings on these books and was therefore feared by staff and my fellow students on campus.
But, on November 22, 2004, his seemingly blissful lifestyle was disrupted when police from Gowon Estate in Lagos, acting on a tip off, when he came to Lagos from Ife for a business deal arrested him. The next day, the police whisked me to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) office in Ikoyi Lagos, where I was detained, while the case was under investigation till January 10, 2005.
THE CHRIST FACTOR AT NDLEA CELL
While at NDLEA cell, he disclosed that God called him and he began to attend the prison Gospel Ministry where he prayed to God to forgive him of all his sins, promising to sin no more if left off the hook by the anti narcotic agents. God seems to have answered his prayers, as he further disclosed that on April 14, 2005, the anti- drug agency arranged him at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, on drug related charges.
The case, which was brought before the then Justice Isaac Ejiofor was later adjourned to May 5, 2005 for further hearing. On the D-day, God finally answered my prayers as the court threw out the case and ordered one inspector Ige, an NDLEA official to take me to the house of my younger brother in Sango Ota Ogun State.
Infact, I was arrested the first time by Jesus Christ while at NDLEA cell and finally during church service at The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Abule Egba Lagos around March last year. Though, I am still having the hangover from years of being involved in drugs, Christ has finally redeemed me.
Today, I also tell you that I now work as a staff at the Abuja office of Christian Association of Nigeria. I was linked up with the job one of my course mate at the university; through I did not eventually finished by degree programme.
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