Kunle Adeyanju, the biker who drove from London to Lagos, said on Saturday that he cheated death about four times during his 41-day trip across 13 countries.

A member of Rotary Club International, Mr Adeyanju told journalists in Ilorin at a reception organised for him by the Kwara Rotary Club, that the adventure was tortuous and risky.

“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 the biker.

On the motive behind the adventure, he said that “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.

“The second objective was to raise funds. 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, adding that “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.”

President of the Rotary Clubs in the state, Rich Oladele, said that the bike rider had done the state and indeed Nigeria proud.

“He has written the name of Nigeria on the global map and in the Guinness Book of Records. He is a member of Rotary Club International,” Mr Oladele said.

(NAN)