OPC founder, Frederick Fasehun, dies at 83

Founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr Frederick Fasehun is dead, aged 83.

Senior Special Adviser on Media, to Fasehun, Mr Adeoye Jolaosho, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, on Saturday.

He said the OPC chieftain died at about 1:00 a.m, 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,” he said.

Fasehun was an active member of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).

He was born in Ondo on September 25, 1938, in Ondo, 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.