Jerry Amilo narrates his near-death encounter
Nigerian actor survives ghastly accident
Nigerian actor, Jerry Amilo, has recounted how he resurrected after being pronounced dead and kept in the mortuary for a period of three days.
Explaining how he ended up in a morgue, Amilo said he was returning to Lagos from a business meeting at Ibadan when the front tire of his vehicle suddenly went off and the vehicle somersaulted over sixteen times.
Amilo disclosed that he was traveling in the company of his late lawyer when the accident occurred.
According to the Nigerian actor, an eye-witness at the accident scene reported the incident to the police who confirmed everyone in the vehicle dead and his body was sent to the mortuary together with his lawyer.
Touching on how he survived although being kept at the morgue, Amilo said, he was told that his body had begun twitching after the third day, thereby causing panic.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Igbo, Jerry Amilo said the incident occurred 24 years ago;
“It’s a testimony. It’s true that I was no more and returned after three nights in the mortuary. I was involved in a terrible accident. We all died. That same day the accident happened was 30th of May, 1998. It was the day I had won the ‘Best Action Actor’ category of an award on its debut. I had gone to see my brother in Ibadan for business. I was returning with my lawyer. I was driving and suddenly saw my front tire ahead of me. The front tire removed. I turned to Dịlo, my lawyer, to ask if he was seeing what I was seeing. I couldn’t finish the words. We all died. That was all I could remember. The vehicle somersaulted, over 16 times, as I was later told.
“From accounts, I was told that a trailer driver was returning to Lagos from an offload point in Ibadan. He was returning to Lagos when he witnessed the accident. He got to the toll gate to report to the police. It was at 7 pm. The police got there and found us all dead. They took our corpses to the police station. They took inventory. Those who resumed the next morning took us to the morgue where there hadn’t been a power supply for three weeks.”
Amilo said it took surgeries and 14 months of eating only liquid food to restore his health.
“It’s a hospital morgue for accident victims. It was full. Most bodies start decaying before being claimed. Three days later, it seemed as though my body was twitching. The attendant had been with my body but it didn’t decay a bit. I woke up blind with my jaw broken into three. The attendant raised the alarm. The morgue is far from the hospital’s main building. Those along the way broke out running in panic. Student doctors dismissed the ghost scare and entered the morgue,” Amilo further narrated. They noticed I was still alive and took me to the emergency section. Three days after, I reawakened. Touched by the development, my IPO was with me throughout the coma. He was narrating the story to his colleagues.
“You’d weep if you saw my face at the time. I was injured in the face. If you watch my past movies, you’d see them. I couldn’t see with my eyes. My IPO was with me until the sixth day. He explained to me. They saw my diary as I always kept one then. For four months, the world thought I was dead. I went through surgeries to restore my face. The jaw broke into three. I couldn’t eat through my mouth for 14 months. I was taking liquid food through straws. My face was sewed so the bones could heal. I act with younger talents but they don’t know what I went through,” he established.
