Poor Yomi Bankole!
…Son of late table tennis star, Lekan Bankole, cries out for help to bury his father
By GBOLAHAN DADA
Monday, February 06, 2012


Bankole
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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How could someone describe the end of the table tennis legend, Oluwayomi Bankole, who suddenly passed on to the great beyond unsung and also in penury.

Of a truth, one of the stars that helped to popularise the game of table tennis in Nigeria is not resting in peace because his remains are still lying in the cold room waiting for burial.
Few days after his demise, his first son, Lekan Bankole, has yet to raise money to bury his late father who struggled throughout his life time in his rented apartment in Agege, after representing Nigeria in many international engagements.

Speaking to Daily Sunsports yesterday on his predicament, the embattled Lekan said that his greatest challenge was to see how his late father would be accorded a befitting burial. According to him, he has been running around to raise fund for his father's burial.
The 26-year-old school certificate holder, said his father died after a brief illness.

The late Bankole was in Rivers State coaching before he was rushed to Lagos for treatment. His son said that he complained about stomach pains all the time as he could not go to toilet, adding that he always vomited whatever he ate food. As a result of that, his stomach was swelling up before he was operated upon.
The late ping-pong star survived the surgical exercise and lived for some days before his final departure to the great beyond.

“My father really suffered in his last days on earth. It was from one case to another. The little savings he had were spent on treatment and he couldn't live to recover from the pains,” Lekan said.
“After the operation, we thought that everything would be okay, but he still died.

“As you can see, I don't have a job. I'm still planning to further my education. We’re only two in the family. My immediate sister, who has since married and I. My mother died 13 years ago, so now, we’re orphans.”
The former national table tennis player, Bankole, died at the age of 52 last Sunday in Lagos, and his corpse had since been deposited at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in Ikeja, Lagos State.

Bankole came into national reckoning in the 1980s and was an arch-rival of another Nigerian ace tennis player, Atanda Musa. At a point, Musa was Africa's number one, while Bankole was in the number two position. Their rivalry came to a head at the finals in the 1984 edition of the Asoju Oba Table Tennis Championship, where Musa beat Bankole to win a Peugeot 504 Saloon car.

Before his death, he was regarded as the oldest table tennis player in Nigeria. Bankole was an icon and a role model to younger players during his life time. He would be remembered as a player who was passionate about tennis and vowed to play the game for the rest of his life.

He's nt the first or to be the last,lamenting abt it is nt going to change anytin as long as we hv an insensitive govt that wl only recognize u wen u are doing well for them.