John Ibironke is a building contractor from Igbara Oke, Ondo State.
He is the son of Joseph Ibironke, a 68-year-old man who claimed to have spent nine years in the United Kingdom and 21 years in the United States before he found himself in Nigeria after a strange illness.
John said he was only a few months old when his father left Nigeria in 1980. He grew up with his mother and his older brother, who died in 1987. His mother remarried, and he had to live with his father’s elder brother, Williams Ibironke, in Lagos.
John never knew much about his father’s life abroad, except that he was a successful businessman who cared for his family.
He always wanted to find his father and reunite with him, but he didn’t know his whereabouts.
He was quoted as saying: “I had always worried my mother that I needed to find my father, but she didn’t have the time to do that despite my insistence.”
In 2016, John decided to go back to his hometown, Igbara Oke, to search for his father’s relatives. He hoped that they would have some information about him.
He travelled from Lagos to Ilesa, where he met his mother and her new family. He then proceeded to Igbara Oke, where he introduced himself as the son of Joseph Bankole Ibironke.
John’s search seemed to be fruitless until he received a phone call from the son of one of his father’s brothers. He told him his father was back in Nigeria and gave him his phone number. John was shocked and excited at the same time. He called his father, and they spoke for the first time.
John’s father told him that he had suffered a strange illness that made him lose his memory and his identity. He said he woke up one day in Nigeria without knowing how he got there or who he was.
