Kunle Adeyanju, a London to Lagos biker and member of Rotary Club International, stated on Saturday that he escaped death four times during his 41-day journey over 13 nations.
On the sidelines of a celebration hosted by the Kwara Rotary Club in Ilorin, Adeyanju told reporters that the journey had been torturous and dangerous.
“Truth is that every kilometre of the 12,000km I covered was fraught with challenges, pains and difficulties.
“Several times I came close to dying. I actually saw death several times. When people say they saw death I never believed that, but when I saw that like four times in Sahara and Mali I now believe that death exists.
“God just wants to keep me alive that is why death did not take me. But one thing I said to myself was that whatever it took I would not quit,” said th3 biker.
“Doing this was basically to achieve two purposes of raising awareness of the end polio message by seeing how we can see the level of vaccine acceptance,” he stated of the motivation for the journey. The second goal was to raise money.
“For me, the two had been accomplished because everybody is now aware of polio. Polio has got a renewed drive as we have the vaccines to end the virus.
“I am very happy that the message has taken a global dimension,” he said.
“I covered a total of 12,000km spanning through 13 countries and 41 cities.
“I left London April 19 and arrived Lagos on May 29,” he said.
Otunba Rich Oladele, the President of Presidents of Rotary Clubs in the state, said the bike rider had done the state and Nigeria proud.
“He has written the name of Nigeria on global map and in the Guinness Book of Records.
”He is a member of Rotary Club International,” Oladele said.