Bolaji Alaba Olukotun

Bolaji Alaba Olukotun was a Nigerian pastor who lived in Lekki, a coastal district of Lagos, where he rented a property owned by Chikeluba Ofoedu Francis, a professional footballer. He died at the age of 67 on 12 July 2026, two days after what his family and lawyer describe as a forced eviction from the four bedroom duplex he occupied at Admiralty Homes Estate, off Alpha Beach Road. Little has been published about his early life, his ministry, or his family beyond the events surrounding his death, and this page will be updated as more verified information becomes available.

His death quickly became a matter of public dispute rather than straightforward mourning. According to the family's lawyer, Akpobome Deniran, Olukotun had held a rent to own arrangement with his landlord that would have let him buy the apartment at the end of his tenancy, but he could not meet the financial terms when the option came due. On 11 July 2026, as the landlord's side moved to reclaim the property, Olukotun placed a distress call to Deniran, reportedly pleading for help and saying he was dying. Deniran has said that when he reached the house he found Olukotun lying on the ground in severe pain with his belongings scattered outside, which the family has characterised as the aftermath of a forceful eviction carried out alongside a police officer and several other men.

The estate agent involved in handing over the property, Blessing Idonor, has disputed that account, saying she visited the house on 12 July to take an inventory ahead of Olukotun's planned departure and found him already in distress, and that she helped him contact his lawyer. The landlord's solicitor, Caleb Onwe, has likewise denied any forceful eviction or assault, saying Olukotun's lease had expired, that he was already weak and packing when officials arrived, and that he had admitted to taking an unknown substance before those present helped arrange his transport to hospital. Olukotun was taken to a private hospital, reported as Udeko Medical Centre, where he died despite treatment.

The family has rejected the landlord's version of events and has pursued a wrongful death petition through their lawyer. Olukotun's son, Ayodeji, has publicly disputed suggestions that his father packed his own belongings and left voluntarily, and has called for a full investigation. The family has also demanded a transparent autopsy, a demand that, as of the first reports on the case, had not been honoured by the State Criminal Investigation Department in Yaba, Lagos. A lawyer for Idonor has said that proceeding with a burial before that investigation concludes could jeopardise efforts to establish the truth.

Because the cause of Olukotun's death has not been independently confirmed, this page describes the competing accounts rather than asserting a single version of events. The family alleges he was assaulted and forced to ingest poison; the landlord's representatives maintain there was no assault and point to his own reported admission that he had taken an unknown substance. No autopsy result had been made public at the time of the first reports, and the matter remained under police investigation.

Olukotun's family had made arrangements to bury him between 11 and 12 September 2026, even as the dispute over an autopsy remained unresolved, a step that drew further concern from those seeking a clearer account of how he died.