Details have emerged on the death of founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) Dr Frederick Fasehun.
Speaking to NAN, senior special adviser on media to the deceased Adeoye Jolaosho said the OPC chieftain died at about 1am on Saturday at the intensive care unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital Ikeja (LASUTH).
“Baba took ill on Wednesday and was rushed to the intensive care unit of LASUTH.
“He died early hours of today. We are all devastated,” Jolaosho said.
Fasehun was an active member of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).
He was born on September 25, 1935 in Ondo Town, Ondo state.
He began his education late, entering primary school at the age of 13 at Saint Matthews Roman Catholic School, Ondo.
He later moved to Saint Peter’s Teacher’s Training College, Akure, also in Ondo state. But he was expelled from school, because of his non-conformity with Catholicism. Fasehun was then admitted to Ondo Boys High School, where he completed his secondary education in less than three years, with a Grade One distinction.
His brother offered him a scholarship to study science at Blackburn College in the UK. He furthered his education at Aberdeen University College of Medicine. He also studied at the Liverpool Postgraduate School after which he had a Fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons.
In 1976, he studied acupuncture in China under a joint World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Development Scholarship Program.
On his return in 1977, he set up an Acupuncture Unit at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
He resigned in 1978 and immediately set up the Besthope Hospital and Acupuncture Centre in Lagos.
His Acupuncture Centre once earned a reputation as Africa’s first for the Chinese medical practice.
Fasehun formed the OPC as part of the pro-democracy struggle for the validation of late MKO Abiola’s victory in the June 12, 1993 election.
His activism led to his arrest and detention by the late dictator Gen Sani Abacha for 19 months from December 1996 to June 1998.
