Dr. Frederick Fasehun
The founder of Odua Peoples Congress, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, has died.
Fasehun, it was learnt, died in the late hours of Friday at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
The octogenarian, it was learnt, was admitted at the Intensive Care
Unit of the hospital on Tuesday where he remained until his demise.
Confirming his death to a correspondent on the telephone, Fasehun’s
Spokesman, Mr. Adeoye, said the late OPC founder was confirmed dead
after a brief illness.
“It is true, baba died last night at the ICU in LASUTH, Ikeja,” he said.
Fasehun was born in Ondo Town, Ondo State in 1938.
He was a medical doctor and hotel owner and was responsible for the
recent revival of the Unity Party of Nigeria, a party formed by the
late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the 1970s
He studied science at Blackburn College and 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, according to Wikipedia.
In 1976, he studied acupuncture in China under a joint World Health
Organization and United Nations Development Scholarship Program.
In 1977, he set up an Acupuncture Unit at the Lagos University
Teaching Hospital. He resigned in 1978 and immediately set up the
Besthope Hospital and Acupuncture Centre in Lagos. The Acupuncture
Centre once earned a reputation as Africa’s first for the Chinese
medical practice.
The OPC is Yoruba-based organization formed to actualize the
annulled mandate of Chief MKO Abiola, who won the presidential election
of 12 June 1993 but was barred from office.
Fasehun was imprisoned for 19 months from December 1996 to June 1998 during the military rule of Sani Abacha.