Pinning down elusive exboxer, Aruna Jinadu Ilerika, a.k.a Ijakoko, for an interview was, indeed, a herculean task. For about three years, Jinadu had played hide-andseek before our correspondent succeeded about a week ago in cornering him at a popular joint in Ikeja, Lagos.
The former boxer, however, set certain conditions, which he insisted must be met before he would grant any interview. His “terms” were met, anyway, and the ground was set for the former boxer to pour out his mind on an issue that had haunted him and which he had evaded for so many years.
Obviously at pain explaining how his promising boxing career blossomed for a short while and then suddenly crashed in 2007, Jinadu recalled that he never thought everything would come to an end as fast as it did. He had dreamt big about making fortunes from professional boxing.
He had traded punches with other boxers within the West African subregion, conquered his opponents and carted home laurels.
The pugilist was beginning to enjoy the fame the game usually brings to those involved when the unexpected happened! His fight in the ring with another boxer, Bashiru Thompson, who was also a police officer, ended in tragedy!
Jinadu and Bashiru had squared up over the West African title belt at the National Stadium in Lagos to the admiration of their respective supporters, who cheered until the 12-round fight entered round eight.
A jab on Bashiru’s face by Jinadu threw the police officer completely off balance. Bashiru fell on the canvass with a thud and never got back on his feet.
Jinadu was elated that he had knocked out his opponent before the end of the 12-round fight. But he never bargained for the bad news that trickled in moments after the police officer hit the canvass and was carried out of the ring on a stretcher.
The boxer, who was still being cheered by his supporters in the stadium was, however, shocked when the news of the death of his opponent got to him.
Gripped with fear, Jinadu became jittery and desperately looked for a way to escape from the stadium before the other policemen around, who were already threatening reprisal, could get to him. Some policemen ran after him, apparently to take revenge, but they couldn’t catch up with his long stride.
He was lucky. A good Samaritan smuggled him out of the stadium and ferried him in his car, far away from danger.
For weeks after the incident, Jinadu continued to recreate in his mind his last fight as a professional boxer, which resulted in the death of his opponent.
From the day of that fight, Jinadu began to live like a refugee running from justice. He was no longer free to ply his boxing trade. And to date, he still takes many looks above his shoulders whenever he walks on the streets.
Jinadu shared his story, “I am a professional boxer of repute, very popular among the youth and I have my fans across the coast of West Africa. In the beginning, I thought that my boxing career would surely take me around the world to earn accolades and win laurels. By so doing, I devoted my time, sapped my energy and set my heart to it, believing that one day, I would be celebrated like the legendary Mohammed Ali.“But that did not happen because the road to success is always laced with broken bottles and spikes. From the start, the future was actually smiling at me as I dwarfed giants, shattered records to become a sensational boxer in the bantamweight category.
“My tall dream came crashing before my eyes some years ago. That was when my imagination suddenly became my limitation .The inevitable happened at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. I had an encounter with a police officer called Supol Bashiru Thompson, who was equally dreaming of making it big in his boxing career. The late police officer needed to beat me to climb the ladder in his career. It was an open challenge. And before the fight, I had conquered some boxers from some West African countries. I fought in Burkina Fasso, Ghana and other places. That was in the early 80s, immediately I turned professional.
“I trained hard under the tutelage of one Joe Oshoba, who was a fine boxer. He taught me the rudiments of boxing. I also owe my success to Bash Ali. He is a nice brother who sees me as his adopted son. He gave me words of encouragement. I will forever be grateful to him. Now, back to the event that eclipsed my career. I fought with the police officer at the National Stadium. Policemen were everywhere and my fans too were there in their thousands, drumming support for me. This time around, I was holding the West Africa Boxing title belt.”
Now looking distraught, the former boxer further said, “The fight was to last 12 rounds. We entered the ring with much enthusiasm, punching each other. When we both got to round five, I noticed that the policeman was already tired and exhausted. Ordinarily, if there had been a back –up, they would have thrown in the towel. At round six, the guy was staggering and wobbling around the ring, and his colleagues in the police were cheering him. I would not say they cheered him to death. At round seven, he was already a jelly, his legs could barely carry him, but his people would not stop at giving him courage. During round eight, a blow to his face sent him to the canvass and my supporters erupted in ovation; his supporters were jeered.
“It was in the midst of the cheering and jeering that I was told that my opponent had given up the ghost. I was shivering like a rain– beaten toddler on hearing the news. Other police officers at the venue wanted to kill me as they ran after me. I ran for my dear life before I was spirited out of the stadium in a Camry car.
“Till today, I do not know the identity of the owner of the car. It was a calamity that would have been prevented from occurring. The medics were not handy to save the life of that promising police officer. On the night of the incident and in the weeks that followed, I could not sleep at all. I was always thinking about the incident. It really affected my career because everywhere I could have gone to showcase my talent, fear of reprisalss never allowed me .”
At 49, what does Jinadu do now for a living?
“I am a boxing coach, fit as a fiddle. Boxing is my life but unfortunately, the profession is dying in Nigeria.
“To come back to your question, I have a lot of people undergoing training under my supervision, but majority of them are learning it for self-defence. Just a few take boxing very seriously. I have trained many people in that order,” he said.
Asked if he’s still afraid of being attacked by policemen, Jinadu said, “I would not know because the incident happened almost 10 years ago. The death of that guy affected my career. It was an accident because boxing is a form of entertainment. My opponent died in error. He was a victim of error of judgment. I did not intentionally kill the man. It was pure accident that could have happened to anybody for that matter”.
