Jeremiah ‘Jerry’ Okorodudu, a former boxer from Nigeria, passed away on Wednesday night at a private hospital in Lawandon, Lagos, following weeks of bed rest due to a foot ulcer, according to The PUNCH.
The PUNCH received confirmation of Okorodudu’s death from his wife, Adenike.
Adenike claimed that the hospital would not release her husband’s body until the unpaid N600,000 medical bill was settled.
“He is dead now but we still need to pay N600,000 to get his body out of the hospital,” Adenike told Newsmen.
His age was 64.
The Olympian had been transferred from a number of institutions before being transported to the Lawanson hospital, mostly because of a lack of funding.
The Olympian’s demise was also confirmed by Remi Aboderin, president of the West Africa Boxing Union, and the secretary general of the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control.
“It is true about his death. I just confirmed it after you called me and I reached out to some colleagues,” Aboderin told.
“It is unfortunate that he died this way, and I am actually lost for words. May his soul rest in peace,” he said.
At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984, Okorodudu fought as a representative of Nigeria in the middleweight division.
At the Oluyole 1979 National Sports Festival in Ibadan, he won the gold medal.
In 2020, he developed a mobility-impairing boil infection, which started his current medical situation. Then, at Dans Hospital in Ikorodu, Lagos, he underwent a successful operation.
But after being told he had a foot ulcer and had a stroke, his health deteriorated again.