On March 4, 2025,  Adetunji ‘Teejay’ Opayele, Bumpa’s chief technical officer, was getting back from a gymnasium in Victoria Island, Lagos, when a careless driver hit him.  He died within the early hours of the next day from an absence of well timed medical intervention, a merciless finish for the 32-year-old engineer, whose startup labored to digitise e-commerce for hundreds of casual merchants throughout the nation. 

Most people realized of Teejay’s dying after the “Get Teejay Justice” petition went viral on-line. It detailed the negligence of the perpetrator, Biola Adams-Odutayo, the hospitals that denied him remedy, and the levity of the following punishment for the motive force.  It additionally lists a number of calls for, together with that Adams-Odutayo, who was beforehand arraigned on March 12 and launched on bail, be charged with manslaughter, slightly than the lesser offense of reckless driving. Over 68,000 individuals have signed the petition and are carefully following the case,  livid that systemic failures throughout the nation’s healthcare and justice techniques straight contributed to the dying of a promising innovator.

Opayele’s legacy extends past the algorithms he engineered. He had a voracious urge for food for all times and a generosity that these closest to him described as bordering on selflessness. 

“Teejay was the form of one who would offer you his final ₦200,000 ($130) in case you advised him you wanted it for a flight,” an prolonged member of the family who requested to not be named as a result of privateness issues, advised TechCabal.

Teejay’s early years 

Opayele’s life unfolded in Lagos, with a childhood marked by a quiet curiosity and a proclivity for fixing issues, foreshadowing his later life as a software program engineer. A relative, who requested to stay unnamed to guard their privateness, remembers him retrofitting cardboard bins with rotors and tyres from toy vehicles, and making his skateboard with wheels from worn baggage. 

“Folks with cell phone points would queue on the gates of their home; he would repair their downside and so they’d be on their manner,” recalled the prolonged member of the family, who lived with Opayele’s household for some years.

Regardless of his tinkering, Opayele opted to review legislation at Obafemi Awolowo College, and on the facet, started studying programming languages like PHP and Linux. Slightly over a 12 months into his diploma, he landed a job as an internet site developer on the faculty’s radio station, Nice FM. A relative remembers him placing up flyers promoting his internet growth providers.  

“He was tremendous clever, even amongst his legislation friends,” says Femi Fadahunsi, a school mate who first met Opayel in 2011. 

In the direction of the top of that 12 months, he was solely sporadically attending courses, Uyoyo Ogedegbe, one other coursemate, recalled in an interview with TechCabal. Fadahunsi advised this stemmed from disillusionment with college schooling.

“I assume he noticed the sunshine sooner than I did; that finding out legislation was ultimately a lifeless finish,” says Fadahunsi, who now works as a advertising and marketing specialist. 

Ogedegbe, finding out legislation to comply with in his father’s footsteps, attributed it to Opayele’s character as an unbiased thinker who “wished extra.”

Opaleye ultimately dropped out however remained on campus. 

“He was at all times going someplace together with his HP backpack, containing a big laptop computer, as he usually carried then, and his glasses, simply heading to the pc lab to program all night time, and also you’d principally solely see him in these locations,” Fadahunsi recalled.

By his third 12 months, when friends like Ogedegbe additionally began dabbling into tech, studying to construct e-commerce platforms, Opayele was already far forward, securing paid gigs and supporting himself financially.

Throughout this time, in 2013, Opayele met Kelvin Umechukwu, who’d turn into his co-founder eight years later.  Umechukwu remembers how shortly they bonded throughout their first assembly someplace near the Pupil Union Constructing (SUB). 

“I made a decision that we must always not eat something, and we simply sat speaking about our work and exchanging concepts,” Umechuwku advised  TechCabal in an interview. 

Each have been related: optimistic about expertise, constructing their concepts, and well-liked for supporting others of their tech journeys. They’d gained campus-wide fame as innovators: Umechukwu’s hottest platform on the time was Voice of Knowledgeable Pupil Social (VOISS), a Fb-like social app that allowed college students to attach and entry lecture notes in PDF, audio, or video codecs. Opayele had additionally constructed a number of issues, together with a platform recognized on the time as “I Rep OAU”, Umechukwu recalled. 

“He at all times had concepts, and one was for a reverse market the place the customer, having the demand and cash, might submit an outline of the merchandise they wished, and sellers might bid for his or her buy,” Umechukwu stated.

Past concepts, Opayele additionally possessed staggering gumption. Umechukwu remembers a back-and-forth Opayele had with the college administration concerning the official pupil platform. Opayele believed he might construct one thing higher and advised the college they must overhaul your complete legacy system, because it was out of date, Umechukwu stated with a touch of amusement in his voice as he recalled the incident from over a decade in the past. They didn’t budge, but it surely was considered one of many situations that demonstrated Opayele’s need to enhance issues.

Opaleye’s bravado wasn’t all discuss. In 2015, Paypanda, an eight-person group he was a part of, received first place and ₦1 million ($5,000*) in a contest co-organised by Oracle. Their expertise was a web based escrow service that held funds paid for merchandise till the customer was happy, based mostly on the vendor’s phrases of settlement.

After the competitors, Opayele secured one other job as a software program engineer at E-Settlement Restricted, the place he helped construct fintech and cell cash options.

Constructing Bumpa

By the point Umechukwu completed college, Opayele had taken one other leap ahead and based a internet hosting service, HostCabal. Umechukwu says Opayele began the enterprise as a result of dissatisfaction with native cloud suppliers on the time. He employed Umechukwu, who had constructed a group of builders (HostCabal’s goal clients) at Consonance, to draw customers, whereas he managed the backend.

Later, Opayele and Umechukwu launched SalesCabal, a facet undertaking that might evolve into Bumpa. It stemmed from a simple remark: their clients, who have been principally builders, have been repeatedly creating related web sites for purchasers, principally e-commerce ones. HostCabal additionally began to get direct requests for web site growth providers, and the requested websites have been a lot alike. They determined to create SalesCabal to supply a standardised, simply replicable web site. With 1,700 sign-ups, the corporate was dealing with 1,000 month-to-month orders. They later realised they wanted a cell app retailer, however neither was a cell app engineer, so progress halted.

“I used to be shocked when, out of the blue, after the COVID-19 lockdown, [Opayele] known as me to say he had constructed the cell app,” Umechukwu recalled. Opayele had taught himself cell app growth throughout the lockdown. “I believe that was after I really grasped the ingenuity of the particular person I used to be working with.”

That ingenuity reached retailers like Raffy, an early Bumpa consumer. She had joined on a pal’s suggestion, which stated Bumpa was constructing for small enterprise homeowners like her. Raffy principally handled Umechukwu, who handed her suggestions to Opayele, however she remembers Opayele from the early days once they visited clients collectively.

“He was shy and reserved,” she stated, recalling a visit to her workplace. “He gave me a present on my birthday—I believe it was in 2020 or 2021; I’m not sure,” she added.

She noticed that he lingered behind the scenes, upgrading the app with buyer suggestions and our wants.

“Bumpa made my life simple,” she stated of the platform, which bundled stock administration, gross sales, and website hosting into one—duties that after demanded a number of instruments. “I used to be utilizing different instruments earlier than, however Bumpa simplified every little thing. I began spreading the phrase—not like an advert, simply because it labored.”

They relaunched the service as co-founders in 2021 and renamed the platform Bumpa. It had 7,000 retailers with 30,000 product listings. The corporate raised a $200,000 pre-seed that very same 12 months.

Bumpa took off. Now it’s a digital lifeline for over 60,000 brick-and-mortar retailers, enabling them to create storefronts, handle stock, and enhance gross sales. Since its launch in 2021, the platform has processed over ₦160 billion (~$651,000) in transactions. 

Past work: A lifetime of journey and connection

Opayele most well-liked to work behind the scenes, quietly shaping Bumpa’s technical core, however exterior the workplace, he was a sanguine thrill-seeker—skydiving, driving an influence bike, and nurturing a large circle of pals.

In January 2025, months earlier than his dying, he joined fifteen bikers for a trip to Ekiti State, a visit that exposed Opayele as a stickler for highway security codes. 

“Not everybody bothers. And that’s the reason I choose driving with him,” one of many riders on the Ekiti journey nicknamed Aladdin, advised TechCabal.

He peppered his fellow thrill-seekers with questions, inquisitive about their lives and ambitions. He supplied concepts freely and enthusiastically supplied assist. Aladdin remembers Opayele lighting up when he shared plans to begin an animal farm. Opayele had advised utilizing AI-powered facial recognition to determine the cows and different methods to make use of expertise to make the work simpler.

“He was so enthusiastic, so supportive,” Aladdin advised TechCabal.

One other rider, Joshua, recalled an identical enthusiasm when he advised Opayele about his furnishings enterprise.

“It was solely an thought, however Teejay was already attempting to put orders,” Joshua stated.

The captain of their group, who remembers jolting off the bed round midnight when he heard of  Opayele’s accident, described Opayele as beneficiant.

That zest and kindness endeared him to many, particularly his co-founder Umechukwu, who says Opayele turned an indelible a part of his life. The 2, who have been roommates from 2022 to 2023, have been like household to one another, gymnasium companions, and journey mates—it went past work. Typically, Opaleye’s youthful brother introduces himself as Umechukwu’s sibling, the co-founder stated.

“He’d bike from the mainland to the island simply to gymnasium with us,” Umechukwu says. “That’s why he was on the market [the night he was killed].”

Grief, outrage, and calls for for justice

The “Get Teejay Justice” petition particulars the surprising refusal of the motive force Biola Adams-Odutayo, a healthcare employee, to move injured Opayele to the hospital. She allegedly refused as a result of issues about blood staining her automotive, delaying essential medical help.

With no centralised emergency service like 911 in Nigeria—the place ambulances are scarce, state-run response techniques are unreliable, and higher choices stay obscure—bystanders scrambled to search out transport, in the end counting on an Uber taxi and minibus. 

The petition additionally revealed that two hospitals rejected Opayele; non-public services in Lagos ceaselessly flip away vital circumstances as a result of insufficient gear, staffing shortages, or calls for for upfront fee, squandering very important minutes earlier than a 3rd hospital took him in, too late.

Though he in the end died from his accidents, Adams-Odutayo was briefly detained and subsequently launched on a ₦1 million bail, dealing with solely reckless driving expenses as a substitute of manslaughter. The case was adjourned to April 16, in keeping with Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State Police spokesperson. 

This incident has sparked widespread outrage, directed at each Adams-Odutayo and the perceived failures of legislation enforcement. 

Buddies, household, and the broader group mourned his loss. The “Get Teejay Justice” petition quickly amassed 70,000 signatures in 4 days, sharply criticising the motive force’s conduct and the perceived leniency of the authorized expenses.

Remembering Teejay

On-line, pals and colleagues have shared condolences and recollections, recalling him as a cherished pal, revered chief, and the driving drive behind considered one of Nigeria’s most promising e-commerce ventures. Opayele’s household is devastated by the lack of a son and brother to 3 siblings, as is his fiancée, whom he ceaselessly visited in Canada.

At a candlelight memorial which held on Friday, March 28, pals left a number of notes about their most poignant recollections of him.

“I keep in mind the primary time we met. He took me to his place, exhibiting me his assortment of robots. He defined numerous ideas of robotics to me with a lot pleasure! That very second made me realise that he had a enjoyable, harmless spirit that regarded ahead to the nice sooner or later. Sums up the type of particular person he was—a form, good and hopeful spirit,” Aderinsola wrote. 

Aderinsola echoes the ideas of a number of family and friends who spoke to TechCabal, emphasising his infectious optimism and beneficiant spirit. Opayele was a person whose ambition was pushed by an unshakable perception in a greater future—one he would by no means see, although he constructed tirelessly in direction of it.

*Greenback equal on the time $1=₦199.1